The Legend of Crystal: New Beginnings
by TLOSpyrogirl
Summary: What if Spyro had... a twin? Meet Crystal. She's spent her whole life in the Swamp; it's her home and her world. But when she and Spyro set out on a journey to stop the mysterious Cynder and her forces, her life will change forever. One question, though, is hanging behind it all: Who is this "Dark Master", and what connection does he have with Crystal and Spyro?
1. The Twists of Fate

**A/N:**

**Welcome to The Legend of Crystal: New Beginnings, my first story ever—now rewritten, it is much better than it was two and a half years ago. Even if the original TLOC was nothing short of utterly embarrassing, I can't say I regret writing this.**

**I don't really have much to say except thank you—friends, supporters, reviewers, and readers. Thank _you, _just for clicking the link. I hope you enjoy the story, I've put my heart into it as best I can.**

**As a final note, this story is primarily written in first person; the first chapter is in third person because it partially details events before Crystal, the narrator, is born.**

**Cover made by GoldenGriffiness and used with permission. Please do not reuse without her consent or knowledge. I hereby disclaim ownership of the Spyro trilogy and its characters. The only characters I own are my OCs. Please do not use them without explicit permission from me.**

* * *

Summer of 1E 750

What do you have to live for?

The day betrayed no sign of the impending anguish that would befall the Temple and the little hamlet that made its cozy home in the forest nearby. Nobody would have expected it—in fact, nobody _did _expect it, expect that their lives were about to be torn apart if not completely ended when night fell.

It was all just too perfect. The blue sky was like a calm lake with no clouds in sight to disturb its beauty; it was just hot enough to be comfortable without being unbearable; and the residents of the village among the tall trees of the forest seemed to go about their day with a bit of a skip in their step. Meanwhile, the Guardians, the few parents of the eggs that lived in the village and not elsewhere like in faraway Warfang, and Ignitus' mate Theresa were gathered at the Temple, watching over the eggs, every single one of them unable to wait until the sound of tiny paws skittering on stone filled the candle-lit halls.

Ignitus entered the small, cozy room as the door slid open before him; just like the rest of the Temple, worn brown and yellow stone made up the walls and floor. The only decoration consisted of four tapestries that adorned the wall, one of the core elements' colours and symbols on each, and a few torches that lit up the room in a fiery glow, setting the shadows dancing. But the main attraction here was the counters, sticking out of the wall, and the rainbow of dragon eggs that were nestled into nests carefully arranged on top of them. And, separate from the others, a pale purple egg that stood proudly on a great pedestal in an alcove in the wall.

Ignitus allowed a smile to graze his weathered face, amber eyes brightening just a bit, as he walked past the little eggs. They would be hatching soon; the other Guardians estimated that it would be a week at the most before they were all out.

Ignitus' small smile faded unbidden as he mused over the past. He knew these little unborn lives were his only hope—actually, not just his only hope; the only hope for all the poor souls being terrorized by Malefor's forces. The number of known dragons in the world was dwindling at a couple hundred at most, and at this rate they would be extinct come 760. Ignitus didn't like having to take the eggs from the parents if they wouldn't listen to reason and give them up, but what choice did he have? Malefor knew the prophecy as well as he did and even now ape spies were skulking in the shadows just waiting to find an egg that they could take back to their master. And if that happened...

Well, nobody was safe anymore. Ignitus didn't know all the components needed to open the lock that led to the Dark Master's prison, but he _did _know that a dragon born in the Year of the Dragon was just one piece of the shattered key. Malefor could not be allowed to have that key under any circumstances.

Ignitus allowed a smile to slip onto his face again as he approached the great pedestal that held the pale purple egg. Gently, he turned it, exposing the other side to the unusually warm air in this room, then headed back to the other nests to do the same.

As Ignitus left the room, he looked back and allowed his fears to dissipate. They were safe here. Malefor's forces could not know where the eggs were being kept and even if they did, the Guardians were well equipped to fight them. Nothing, nothing would harm these little growing lives, including the life of his and Theresa's own child that lay among them.

Or so he thought.

When Ignitus returned that night to check on the eggs again, his previous happy demeanour was gone, replaced by an air of uncertainty. With Theresa—who had returned after her and the other fighters forced the apes plaguing the city of Darkhollow into a retreat—patrolling the outskirts of the Temple, and the other Guardians off doing other things as well, Ignitus had been left to his own thoughts, and those thoughts were very grim indeed.

His mind wandered to dark futures, examined the most shadowy crevices of what was to come. What if the apes did discover the location of the eggs? What if they attacked and he could not stop them? And, worst of all, what if Malefor got his paws on a dragon egg? What could Ignitus possibly do then?

The future was far more grim than he could ever anticipate.

Ignitus slowly made his ways past the eggs that lay in peaceful silence in their warm nests, stopping once more before the purple egg. The Fire Guardian stared at it blankly. No thoughts crossed his mind, only an inexplicable emotion: a mix of fear of what might happen to the egg, as well as mild surprise—surprise at the thought that the beings within this little egg would one day save the world.

Even as he began to sense that something, _something _was wrong, just barely detected Volteer's pounding footsteps in the halls that led to this room, and though he didn't know it realized just exactly what was going to happen, he knew in his heart that one day this tiny, helpless, unremarkable egg would save all of those that had fallen under the Dark Master's pitch black shadow. And even as the years after that one terrifying day tiredly wore on and the struggle for his very existence did not cease, even as his mind clouded with doubt, deep inside the old fire dragon never lost hope.

Ignitus snapped from his trance, alarmed, as his friend and fellow Guardian Volteer burst through the door. Panting wildly as he tried to regain his breath, he straightened suddenly and gasped out, "The Dark Armies have come!"

It took a few moments for the gravity of this simple statement to sink in. Eyes flashing like the fire he wielded, Ignitus asked, "Where are the others?" He did not panic—experience had taught him that he needed to remain calm, but he could not help the glimmer of fear that rose up in him.

Catching his breath, Volteer hurriedly said, "Cyril is warning the townspeople, a-and Terrador is trying to hold them back."

"And Theresa?"

Volteer didn't answer for a few moments, mustard-coloured eyes scanning over the ground as if it was a book with all the answers. "W-we don't know—but you must hurry! Save them! Terrador can't hold them off for much longer, and I must stay here to protect the eggs."

Ignitus, turning, tried to put his worries to rest. Surely Theresa was with Cyril, or perhaps fighting off the apes. She was fine—she _must _be fine. Ignitus knew he needed to act fast if he was to save the eggs in time, so he focused on this as best he could as Volteer, slipping back into a panic, headed outside to guard the entrance. Ignitus' eyes scanned over the eggs, but they immediately fell on the pale lavender one, and he knew what he must do. There was no other choice, really. He must put the purple dragon above all others—only he had chance at defeating the Dark Master one day. And though that chance was small, it was all the world had.

Ignitus snatched up the egg, careful to be gentle with it; very precious cargo, it was. Turning and clutching the egg to his chest with one paw, he broke into a run, dashing wordlessly past Volteer as he continued down hall after twisting, turning hall. Eventually he reached the great training room, where _his _statue lay, looking condescendingly upon all those who passed. Every time Ignitus met it, he closed his eyes and hoped that this time it would be different. But now he didn't have time for that. Ignoring the flashing eyes of the great sandstone statue, he rushed out onto the balcony. There he burst into the air without delay.

He heard them before he saw them. Shrill screeches rippled through the air, grinding against Ignitus' skull and making him flinch. Swooping down, he just barely saw them, their furry bodies shining in what little light the slivers of the moons gave. Dreadwings. The bat-like creatures, with their sharp teeth, long wings with tattered membrane, bulky, furry bodies, and a scream that literally could stop you in your tracks and paralyze you with fear, looked and sounded like something out of a nightmare.

Panic shot through Ignitus when he too saw another figure flying against the strong winds that had just picked up.

Theresa.

He saw her form, barely a silhouette against the pitch black, starless sky, slipping through the air, dodging the swings of Dreadwings and the range of their paralyzing screams. One by one, the great creatures were knocked out of the sky by the grey dragon's blasts of wind. Ignitus glanced at the egg hesitantly and made his choice. Theresa might need help, but it was more important that the purple dragon be brought to safety.

Just as Ignitus began to turn and speed off towards the river, barely visible through the heavy mushroom forest, two screams tore through the air—one the piercing shriek of a Dreadwing and the other the cry of a dragon. Whipping around, Ignitus was just in time to see red ripples of the wavelengths of a Dreadwing's visible cry and something else darting down into the darkness of the forest.

"Theresa!" Ignitus screamed over the whipping winds, but Theresa did not respond—paralyzed, she only continued to fall down, down, down into the darkness until she was no longer visible.

The fire Guardian had scarcely travelled three feet in Theresa's direction before, stopping, he gritted his teeth and turned back. He knew very well that he needed to put this first priority—Theresa would want him to. And, too, if he went to help her she would only say she was perfectly alright and chide him for going after her instead. She _was_ fine... Wasn't she?

It didn't matter, Ignitus hated to abandon her, but he couldn't take the chance. Of course Theresa was okay... She had to be okay. So, regretfully, Ignitus pushed it to the back of his mind and continued on to his destination.

It only took another minute or two to reach it; swooping down between the caps of the great mushrooms that fringed it, the old red-orange dragon stopped at the banks of the Silver River—appropriately named; though in the day the river seemed to be a dazzling gold, at night the gentle waters were bathed in a soft silver glow that shone through right to its black depths.

Ignitus glanced back at the Temple, illuminated not by even a single candle in a window, as they had all been blown out by the harsh winds. Ignitus knew needed to hurry; there was little time and Volteer needed him to help defend the other eggs and get them to safety. Looking around, Ignitus found what would hold the wayward egg: the cap of a very young mushroom that, by one mean or another, had died and fallen. Ignitus placed the lavender egg into the mushroom cap's indented middle; it fit perfectly, almost as if someone had carved it out and placed it there just so it might serve this very use.

Ignitus placed the makeshift boat into the water; it floated, gently rocking like a cradle, and it took all the will in the Guardian's body to push it out into the river. The waters were calm tonight and the egg would likely find its way to the shore before it hit the rapids. Of course there were also rocks, little waterfalls and other obstacles littered across the river. Perhaps the cap would fall over and the egg would sink to the bottom, the unborn dragons inside dying, or maybe it would make its way through the precarious river only for nobody to ever find it. Ignitus had little hope that the egg would survive, but this was the only way. He stared at the egg as it slowly but surely began to float down the Silver River, carried down the gentle current.

Raising his voice as if the egg could hear it, Ignitus said, "May the ancestors look after you..." He paused, bowing his head. "May they look after us all." Raising it again, he watched as it disappeared behind a bend, watched as his only hope—the world's only hope—slipped away. And then he turned, took the air, and did not look back.

When Ignitus arrived at the Temple again, praying to the ancestors that Theresa would be okay without him for the moment, he halted in the hall before the door that led to the egg-keeping room. Volteer wasn't here—but his blood was, as were the charred marks of his electricity on the wall, marring the prophecies written on it. Fear jumped into the fire Guardian's heart, but he shoved it down. The apes surely could not have gotten past Terrador _and _Volteer... could they have?

Ignitus, sucking in his breath, breathed a great burst of fire. Only an elemental attack could open the doors—there was no way they could have gotten inside...

The first thing that greeted Ignitus was the sight of Volteer lying on the floor, injured and bleeding and... dead? Panic and despair welled up in Ignitus; Volteer had been his friend ever since he was only a child.

The Fire Guardian realized quickly, though, that Volteer was not dead, merely unconscious; though his breaths were shallow he was still alive. Relieved beyond words, Ignitus scarcely noticed that something was terribly off. Looking up, shock shot through him and he nearly stopped breathing as he stared at the horrible, sickening sight before him that made his stomach curdle. Ignitus had seen many terrible things in his life, but this—this was simply the worst of them all.

Ignitus took a few unsteady paces forward, not sure what to do. His head was spinning and despair flooded his mind; his vision blurred and he felt as if he might just drop to the ground and die right then. As the realization of what had just occurred finally sank in, the Guardian's heart dropped. He had failed.

What do you have to live for, when the only life you've ever known comes to a sudden end, when your mate may very well be dead, your child torn from you, and when the bleak future that holds only death, despair, and pain is utterly inescapable?

Even as Ignitus' days turned into nightmares, even when he truly lost everything, and even when he felt as if the only reprieve from this torture would be death, the purple egg that he had saved still gave him something—something that, even in the darkest of days, still lingered in the back of his mind.

Hope.

~~...~~

Through whatever force of nature, the egg survived. Some might say it was by intervention of the ancestors, guiding the egg to safety; others could believe it was merely fate itself; and still others would think it to be no more than the blind luck that characterized the unborn dragons. Whatever the case, they would soon be somewhere safe, somewhere the ravages of war had not discovered yet.

But as morning dawned over the world, the river set aflame by the sun's light, the egg was only just beginning its journey to respite. Though the river was thankfully calm and mild that day, it made the trip much slower. And the egg was getting closer to the end of that particular part of its life cycle... It would hatch any minute now.

The creatures inside were beginning to stir from their unconscious slumber and awaken to a new life. A new beginning. A beginning spared from the sufferings of war, if only for a little while.

The egg travelled for a long time, though truly it did not go far—an hour or two's walk from the Temple, if that. Still, despite its close proximity to a place that had been swarming with apes only a few hours before, the location was deep in the heart of the Swamp and yet untouched by the war.

When the egg arrived to its final destination, coming to rest on the muddy, sloped shore, it was perhaps midday. An hour before, the only three residents of the area—the dragonflies Flash and Nina, as well as their newborn son Sparx, who was only yet a few hours old—had decided to take a fly to the river to get some fresh air. Now only just arriving, they were greeted with a rather surprising sight; the egg sitting placidly on its cap and rocking gently in the sparkling golden water, the current pushing it to the shore and keeping it from drifting back out again.

Fear sprung up in the dragonflies' minds (except for young Sparx, who was asleep in his mother's arms, his soft golden glow dimming), but curiosity touched them as well. What could possibly be inside this great egg? It was unlike anything either had ever seen... Even Flash, who had once lived on the mainland with a small colony of dragonflies in the forest. He had run away, though, escaping the colony's strict laws and harsh punishments; travelling over the ocean he found the small island and, exhausted, decided to find a safe place to rest there.

After wandering into the swamp, he came upon Nina, whose mother, recently passed, had raised her there all her life. Nina did not remember her early childhood, her father's death and her mother's narrow escape from it; all she knew was the Swamp. But Flash, who had seen the outside, had never seen a dragon before. Neither dragonfly knew what to make of this.

Curiosity seized the pale red dragonfly and she could not help but fly slowly forward, towards the light purple egg.

"Nina, be careful," Flash warned in a low voice, as if talking loudly would cause the egg to spring up like a frogweed and kill them both.

But Flash didn't need to warn Nina; the creatures in the egg, instinct seizing them, began to pound upon the thin shell from the inside, causing the egg to shake and rock violently. Terror seizing Nina, she flew back to Flash without a word and they both backed away from the egg. But neither of them were willing to run; they wanted too much to see what lay inside this strange egg that had washed down the river.

A large crack split down the middle of the egg, then another and another, and finally, with a loud _crack, _the shell broke open. Flash and Nina were both astonished at what they saw next—two little dragons who could be no taller than they were, their soft scales a discoloured purple, rolled out of the egg and right up the bank of the river. When they stopped rolling upon reaching the grass, the two twins, confused, just lay there for a moment.

"What—" the shocked Nina breathed, unsure what to even think. "What _are _they?"

These dragons were simply alien to her; with their small yellow horns and spikes jutting out of their head and back; large, orange, membraned wings; plated underbellies, and—as they noticed as one of them yawned as it struggled to flip itself off its back—_very_ sharp frontal teeth fit only for a carnivorous species (or, in this case, omnivores with carnivorous tendencies), they seemed almost like monsters out of a nightmare despite their innocent-looking faces, wide, purple eyes, and helpless infancy.

The stupefied dragonflies watched in utter bewilderment as the two little dragons, despite their own surprise, managed to roll onto their stomachs. Though at first they crawled forward slowly, unsure what to do and where to go in this amazing new world, they began to climb onto their feet. One managed to walk a few steps on unsteady paws, claws digging into the soft soil, before falling back down again.

Blinking, Nina came to, and her new-found maternal instinct kicked in. "What do we do?"

"What you mean, what do we do?" Flash asked, turning to Nina with confusion on his face.

"We can't just leave them there, Flash."

"We don't even know what they are... They could be dangerous. And we can't put Sparx in danger." Glancing at the foreign creatures warily, many grim possibilities passed through his mind. What if they hurt the young dragonfly? Or worse?

"What they _are _are two helpless children... And I'm not going to leave them here to die." Had Nina not been holding Sparx she would have crossed her arms. Though usually a passive dragonfly, she could be very stubborn sometimes. Her expression softened. "Their parents must be around here somewhere. Let's just keep them safe until they come for them."

Flash, glancing at the hatchlings, sighed. She was right; how could he protest? The little things would fall into the river and drown or get eaten by frogweeds if they left them. "Alright, Nina. Just until their parents turn up."

But their parents didn't turn up. Nina would always plead, "Please, Flash—one more week. Their parents will come eventually. Just one more week." A week turned into a month, a month into a year, and by then they had both accepted it. Their parents weren't ever coming. But by that point, honestly, neither of them wanted them to. They had accepted the strange little hatchlings into their hearts and their lives long ago. Both of them dreaded the day they knew would come someday, the day when they had to tell them the truth.

For the moment, though, this worry did not pervade their mind. Now, they were only focused on getting the hatchlings home. Drawing their attention, Flash and Nina coaxed them forward. Interested in these talking bright lights, they once more stood up and stumbled forward, but this time they managed to stay on their feet, and step after step they followed their new family home.

On the way, the female hatchling broke away from her brother, attracted by a new light source. Though Nina continued to lead the other hatchling onward, Flash went after the girl, who had tripped off behind a large mushroom.

Flash found her sitting on the ground, clutching something in her mouth—a small blue crystal. Flash had seen these crystal growths about before, but he'd always ignored them, unsure what they were. Even he, a dragonfly all but disconnected from the arcane, could feel the pulse of magic about them and was wary of the things.

"Come on—" Flash stopped, remembering that she had no name. Pausing, he slowly said, "Crystal..." The name felt right to him; it was unexplainable but it just seemed to suit the girl perfectly. And, too, she seemed to like it; despite the crystal in her mouth she smiled and agreeably followed Flash as he led her back to the group.

Nina agreed with the name; like Flash thought, it simply seemed right for her. As for the boy hatchling, she had an idea of her own.

"Spyro," Nina said, her mother's voice echoing in her mind as she told the young dragonfly stories of her father.

Flash glanced at Nina knowingly, but he nodded. "Spyro and Crystal."

"We'll just call them that until their parents come," Nina said softly, glancing sadly at the smiling hatchlings. Already she felt attached to them; though she knew she would have to give them up to their real parents, she didn't want them to go.

Spyro and Crystal happily spent that warm night outside under the stars, curled up together under a mushroom, but Flash and Nina needed to find them another place to stay for when they were older. Their nest-house that hung from the branch of a tree was smaller than one of the hatchlings so obviously they couldn't stay there. It didn't take them long—the answer was obvious.

Near their house, there was a small clearing, bare all except for a bit of undergrowth and a single tree. On that tree was an old abandoned treehouse that had been there even when Nina was a child. It seemed safe—though uninhabited, the tough wood had resisted years of rain and wasn't rotted. There were no windows and it was completely bare except for a chest with nothing but a small bag inside and some dusty blankets, but it would suffice when the nights grew crisp and cold and sleeping outside in the humid swamp was not an option.

Now, at midday the next day, Flash and Nina watched with careful eyes as Sparx (who had just learned to fly on his own an hour ago, though he was getting rather tired) played with Spyro and Crystal. The two were both careful, which surprised their adoptive parents—who knew these fearsome-looking creatures could be such gentle giants? Even Crystal, who had seemingly lost her gem but was now excited and energized in the manner of a hyper child, was strong enough to run short distances in her play despite that she was only a day old.

Crystal and Spyro seemed to like their new home, the dragonflies who were now their family. Even though someday they would wonder about how they could be dragonflies when they looked so different, and even though doubt would creep into their minds and they couldn't help but think perhaps—perhaps this _wasn't _their family... Deep down, they knew the Swamp was their home; where they belonged and where they would always come back to no matter how far they wandered. For this was their place in the world now.


	2. Innocence

Winter of 1E 756

"Tag! You're it!" I laughed, the sound rippling through the air like the rays of the setting sun. The crisp cold bit into my scales, but the heat that came from running about quickly dispelled it, warming me up like a crackling fire.

Spyro, who I had tagged, groaned good-naturedly and turned around to count. Him, Sparx, and I were playing a combination of tag and hide-and-seek that we had come up with a few months ago. Running off, it only took me a few moments to find a good bush to hide in and, diving into it, I crouched down. I grew chill now that I wasn't moving, but I ignored it; Spyro would find me or Sparx soon and then I would be able to run again.

"I caught Sparx!" I heard Spyro yell.

I popped my head above the top of the bush. "You did?" I asked in surprise. Spyro never was able to catch Sparx; the golden gnat was fast, and besides that he could fly and didn't have to tramp through the mud and muck like we did.

In a flash Spyro was standing beside me."No. You're it!" He pushed my shoulder and dashed away before I could retaliate.

"Hey, that's not fair!" I complained. Managing to untangle myself from the bush with quite a bit of trouble, I ran towards Spyro and tagged him, ignoring the rules that said I needed to count and give him a chance to hide. Rules were meant to be broken, right? "Now you're it!" I said with a laugh.

"That's cheating!" the indignant Spyro exclaimed.

"You cheated first," I rebutted.

"No, you did!"

"No, you did!"

"_I've_ got an idea," Sparx said in irritation, flying between us. "What if I'm it?"

"Fair enough," I said agreeably, completely forgetting about the argument that had nearly been started.

Spyro and I, oddly enough, argued a lot. And by a lot, I don't mean a lot, I mean near-constantly—we fought over basically everything; who would get out of the tree house first, who had to be "it", and where we would go if we happened to wander into the Swamp. The arguments were usually settled with a mild fight. Though we always made up in the end, we always had our special connection, but... sometimes I just wish it hadn't been that way.

We only had time to play for fifteen more minutes until Mom called us inside to go to bed, much to my dismay. Our curfew was at sundown—Mom and Dad didn't want us wandering in the dangerous Swamp after dark—but I wanted to play tag all night. Still, though, I came willingly, tired after a long day of play.

I climbed onto the low branches of the tree easily, quickly jumping from bough to bough until I reached the trapdoor. I had learned to climb early on and could now scale a tree in thirty seconds tops, something I prided myself on and often taunted Spyro with—he could only climb a tree in _forty _seconds.

Grabbing onto the floor of the treehouse and pulling myself up—the ladder that had once been here was gone, the frayed and snapped ropes still hanging from the bottom—I climbed inside. This place was just as bare as it had been six years ago, but now the little chest in the corner was filled with this-and-that. Smooth pebbles from the Silver River, broken fragments of those strange crystals that were everywhere, and treasure of all treasures, once I'd found a silvery-brown hawk feather. I'd never caught a glimpse of the magnificent bird, but its sleek feathers were beautiful.

Yawning, I walked over to my blanket, thin and purple with strange designs on it; circles, squares, curlicues, and little lines that looked like slender, bare tree branches in the cold winter. It was coarse, but comfortable, and I plopped down on it while stretching contentedly.

_I'm tired, _I thought; the words travelled beyond my mind, gliding through the air until they reached their destination.

_Me too, _was the reply, Spyro's voice echoing in my mind.

Which brings me to our connection—this was more than just a bond. We had something... different. Something special. I wasn't sure what, exactly, it was or how we acquired it, or even how we found out about it. It's always just... been there. All I knew was that it was magical somehow. This was evidenced by the purple chain of energy that, when our emotions were both strong, crackled between us like electricity.

At first Spyro and I had thought it normal—but after trying to transmit our thoughts to Sparx and failing, realizing that nobody else seemed to have this ability, we realized just how strange it was. Though we tried to tell Mom and Dad about it, they didn't seem to understand; they simply thought we were merely playing. As for Sparx, he thought we were crazy when we told him, but we somehow managed to convince him that it was real. It went a bit like this...

* * *

"But we _can_."

"That doesn't make any sense, Crystal," Sparx said, crossing his arms. "You can't talk to people with your mind. It's not possible."

"Won't you listen to us?" I demanded angrily, stamping my paw on the ground. It splashed in the thin film of water that covered the ground. Even at a young age, I always had a temper.

"We can prove it," Spyro said. Aaand, even at a young age, Spyro always had patience and often came up with the compromises.

"How?" Sparx demanded.

"Um..." Spyro thought for a moment, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the ground. "Crystal, you go over there. Sparx, say something to me and Crystal will tell you what I said."

Dubiously, Sparx flew over to Spyro to whisper a word to him. I walked away and waited, glancing at the blue expanse of sky covered in a thick blanket of pillowy clouds. I began to burn up in the hot sun; it was one of those unbearable summers and the windless air was thick, making it hard to breathe. Luckily, after a few seconds of increasingly impatient waiting, Spyro's thought came to me.

"Mushrooms, that's what you told him," I said to Sparx, raising my voice so he could hear.

"Wha—how did...?" Sparx gaped at me. "Well... that's an easy one. I know you won't be able to guess this." Sparx leaned down to Spyro and whispered something again.

"You said 'There's no way Crystal will be able to guess this one right'," I said flatly, my back turned to them, when Spyro trasnmitted the phrase to me.

I turned and looked at Sparx, who said nothing and merely stared, dumbfounded, between me and Spyro. His blue eyes seemed to get bigger and bigger every second. Finally, he said, "No way."

I shrugged. "I don't get it either. It just_ is_."

And that was that.

* * *

I yawned again as the waning sun's rays filtering in from the open trapdoor suddenly dimmed. The sun had set, bathing the Swamp in the moon's dusky light.

"Night, Spy'," I mumbled, reaching over and pushing the trapdoor down. It closed with a bang and the room became pitch-blackl

"Goodnight, Crystal," Spyro replied, yawning himself.

I curled up on my blanket, pressing against the cold board wall, and allowed my eyes to fall shut. Asleep almost immediately, I drifted off on a golden river of dreams, not unlike the one my egg had floated down so long ago.

I woke up once in the night, drawn from my slumber by the freezing cold. Shivering, I pulled myself into as tight a ball as physically possible. Five minutes passed with agonizing slowness, but I was still not warm, so drowsily I stood up and crossed over to the other side of the room. I dropped down beside the sleeping Spyro and curled up into him. He didn't stir and eventually I dropped off to sleep again.

When morning came, I awoke to brief snatches of sunlight squeezing in past the minuscule cracks in the boards. Yawning, I pulled myself up off the ground, walked over to the trapdoor, and pulled it open. What I saw below so astonished me that I gasped in delight and stood there staring at it for several seconds as if it would disappear before my eyes.

"Spyro..." I breathed in wonder. When he didn't respond, I snapped out of it. "Hey, Spyro, wake up! You have to see this!" I called to my sleeping brother. He didn't move an inch, likely trying to ignore me. "Spy_ro," _I insisted, walking over to him and gently pushing his shoulder.

"What, Crystal?" Spyro asked, obviously irritated as he opened sleepy purple eyes. Blinking a few times, he yawned.

"It's snowing!" I exclaimed, excitement dancing in my eyes.

"Huh? There's no way it could be snowing," Spyro replied, shaking his head and reluctantly getting to his feet. He walked over to the open trapdoor, paused as his face contorted to a look of shock, and exclaimed, "It's snowing!"

"Told you so," I said with a laugh. Pushing past him, I jumped down the hole and spread my wings so I'd drop slowly to the ground. My paws landed in the refreshingly cold snow with a crunch. The air was colder than ever before, but I didn't care—my first snowfall!

As I ran forward into the glittering wonderland, I glanced back and saw that I had left deep footprints in the snow. Spyro dropped onto the ground himself and we exchanged excited glances. He left his own prints in the snow as he stumbled through it and eventually reached me.

"I can't believe this!" I exclaimed, wading through the snow and trying to make my way up the little ramp at the edge of the clearing.

"Me neither," Spyro agreed, shaking his head in disbelief.

Neither had us had ever seen snow—it was too warm here for the whiteness to blanket the ground. Yet here it was... And not just a mild sprinkling, but piles upon piles of it. _Everything_ was coated with snow. Snow was piled on the very tops of the mushrooms—the rest had slid off—and glassy icicles hung on their bottoms. The cold sun sparkled off the snow, creating an enchanting effect. This had to be the most amazing thing I had ever seen!

As I tramped on, pretending that I was on a mountain covered with snow and... whatever else mountains had, my mind wandered far away from my home. What was the rest of the world like? There were places out there where it snowed every day; I knew because Mom and Dad had told me. But where were these places? I knew nowhere other than the Swamp, and only part of it, as I wasn't allowed outside a certain boundary. There was a forest just outside the Swamp, made up of large and imposing trees, but otherwise, I had no idea where I was.

I had intended to find out once not too long before. I was going to cross over to the other side of the river near the clearing and keep walking until... well, until something happened. Everything went according to plan at first. I took Spyro with me, mostly because I had to but in part because he was curious as well. We stole away from the clearing when nobody was looking and made it to the river easily.

But there was one problem. Neither of us could swim.

The river looked so happy and playful as it danced along the bank. I thought it would be easy to just get in, paddle over to the other side, and continue on. I was wrong. I waded into the shallows, each step became harder to take as the water resistance increased. I was not fazed, and I continued walking forward until I was up to my neck. It was at that moment I realized the water was not playing.

The liquid grabbed onto me and began to drag me down the raging river. I was so shocked that I didn't move for several seconds. Usually the Silver River was mild enough that I could jump right into it, not to mention it had looked just fine before.

"Crystal! Crystal!" Spyro's cries were almost lost in the sound of the water, but they drew me from my reverie. I started violently, managed to turn myself, and began to paddle, but the current was too strong.

Spyro was running along the side of the bank, but he began to lag behind—he was only six and only had so much breath. Finally, in a desperate move he plunged into the water, but that didn't help at all. Now we were both in it, literally! Terrified, I still continued to paddle, although my legs grew weak and failed me. I couldn't keep my head above the water; I was thrown about and pushed under, and sometimes my gasps for air took in water instead.

What would happen to us? What if we became exhausted and drowned? What if there was a waterfall, or a big and very mean fish, or rocks? What if the river spilled into that thing called the ocean? Dad had once described it to us. It went on forever, for miles and miles, all over the world. There were sharks in it, and waves even more powerful than this river's current now, and its bottom was farther down than one could see.

I'm not sure what might have happened, but I know that a stroke of luck just narrowly hit us. A mushroom that had been growing by the river had, for one reason or another, been felled into it. I was facing away from the direction the current was taking me, so I didn't know this until I hit it. A bit of hope sprang into me once more as I gazed at the great stalk.

It took all my strength, but turning, I managed to grab the stem and pull myself on top of it. Spyro, who was stronger than I was, had a lot less trouble. He climbed up beside me and we both managed to get onto good hard ground without stumbling right off the stalk. I was coughing up water all the way.

And it didn't go all that well even after we were out of the water, either. We still had to find our way back home and neither of us were sure what side of the river we were on, which was not helpful. It took us nearly two hours, weak and barely able to even stumble forward, just to get back to the Swamp.

There was no evidence of our little adventure, save for a few nicks and scratches. The sun had dried us of the water, and Spyro and I often disappeared to play for a few hours. Mom, Dad, and Sparx never even knew we were gone. And we never said anything about it for fear we would get into trouble. So close to being drowned and nobody ever knowing what had become of us... We were lucky.

That near-death episode was just a normal day compared to what I would face in three year's time. I would learn about the rest of the world, but at a great price.


	3. A Simple Game…

Summer of 1E 759

I could see him now. My target. I only took my eyes off him a moment to glance at the tree branch that supported my weight, wobbling dangerously and ready to crack at any moment; I needed to act fast. Taking a deep but silent breath, I steadied myself. My heart was pounding so loudly that I could hear it clear as day, and the adrenaline running through my veins was ceaseless. Though I wanted to spring, I waited, watching him until I knew the time had come. He was close enough now.

I crouched down, ready to jump at any moment, and blew out a breath that ruffled a leaf in front of me. Eyes narrowing, my body tensed for just a moment, and I pounced. Leaves, in a tizzy, flew into the air as I burst through the treetop and the branch I'd been standing on broke under the extra force pushed on it. My target looked up, but it was too late for him now. I aimed myself, paws out, and...

"Gotcha, ya little gnat!" I laughed as I somersaulted over the ground and landed on my stomach, paws cupped around Sparx. Sneak-attacking him when we were playing tag was so much fun! He never saw it coming, even though I always hid in the same spot every single time I did it...

"Okay, purple girl, just let me go!" Sparx exclaimed angrily, pounding on my paw with his fists and glaring at me through the cracks in my paws. His eyes, having that special trait of being sometimes green and sometimes blue, flashed angrily.

True to Sparx's word, I _was _purple, just a shade darker than Spyro. The colour was a strange one to be—since when did you ever hear of a purple dragonfly?—but I didn't mind being different. Besides, it was kind of special. You don't see a lot of the colour purple anywhere.

"As you wish," I said with a bow, standing up. I opened my paw, allowing Sparx to drop to the ground, and smiled sugar-sweet when he glared at me once more. Brushing himself off, he floated disdainfully into the air and away from me.

"Alright! My turn!" Spyro, who was behind me, said with a smile.

"Me, too!" I chimed in. "Tag-team!"

Spyro and I leaned against the tree. The rough, gnarled bark scratched against my forehead as I closed my eyes and listened to Spyro count aloud. I resisted the urge to break into laughter as I waited, just out of pure happiness. This day was bliss... The last joyful experience I would have for a while. In just a few hours, everything would change forever.

"...Eight, nine, ten! Here we come!" Spyro said, jumping off the tree.

I grinned, ready for the fun to begin, and dropped back down on all fours. Looking around, I tried to spot Sparx from my current location, but he was nowhere to be seen. Walking over to a mushroom, I peered behind it, but he wasn't there.

He appeared suddenly in my vision when I turned back around, as if he had faded from existence and pulled himself back into it, and swirled around us in a taunting manner. I jumped, startled, then laughed as he made a face at us and flew away. Spyro took a running start and leaped for Sparx, but the golden dragonfly evaded him and came flying my way, forgetting about me as he glanced over his shoulder. He barely stopped in time to avoid me as I jabbed my head up and quickly took a left turn and buzzed away before I could reach a paw out. I wouldn't have hit him for the world; it was just to surprise him. It wouldn't have hurt him anyway. Dragonflies have some pretty tough skin, and they're a lot stronger than they look.

Spyro came running for Sparx, but he was no match for the quick dragonfly. Of course, we were slow. The mud hindered us and the thick-growing grass wrapped itself around our legs like a sea monster's tentacles. Sparx, who always flew, wasn't fazed by such things. I didn't mind, for the most part, but I could never catch Sparx. Oh, _how _I wished I could fly, floating above the world like a dream—then I could always win when we played tag. But I wasn't going to let anything ruin my fun, so I allowed the pang of remorse to slip away and be replaced with happiness.

"Never catch me this time, purple girl!" Sparx teased me—by some miracle, I had won last time. Sparx flew up above us and I lost sight of him in the glare of the sun.

Spyro and I stood up on our hind legs, looking around. Sparx had this quality of completely disappearing for minutes at a time when we were playing tag, something not even I could pull off. I noticed a light out of the corner of my eye as I turned back; Sparx had flown behind me. I smiled subtly, pretending I hadn't noticed him, and nudged Spyro. Unfortunately, Sparx had hidden himself again while I was distracted.

As I was looking around, I noticed a faint glow coming from behind some large, white mushrooms. Sparx must have noticed me looking in his direction, as he flew behind a tree and hid there instead. I grinned, taking a few steps forward. He was trapped now.

"I see you, my little glowing friend," Spyro said, taking slow steps behind me.

"Seeing and catching are two different things, a-big boy," Sparx teased, revealing himself, but before I could even dart forward, he was gone.

Our home, in a small clearing, was surrounded on all sides by mushrooms too thick for even a dragonfly to squeeze through. At the edge of the clearing was a hill leading elsewhere, and that was where Sparx went in an attempt to get away from us.

"Yeah, you better run!" Spyro yelled after him, laughing.

I paused for a moment, thinking, as we began to run up the slope. Spyro, Sparx, and I were more or less allowed free reign of the Swamp, but there were boundaries set. As soon as Spyro and I were big enough to tussle with the frogweeds and not get seriously injured, Mom and Dad turned us loose and we happily explored the whole of our small world. We were allowed to do anything we wanted, so long as we followed the rules.

1. No going through the northern or eastern exits. (The Swamp was so thickly filled with the great mushrooms that it was nearly impossible to get through it unless you followed the overgrown, unused paths. One of these was located right in the clearing, and one led to the were other little paths, but they all led to a dead end.)

2. Frogweeds can and will swarm you if they get the chance. If this happens, we must grab Sparx and run, because we are not strong enough to face twenty-odd frogweeds.

3. No exploring the old snake skeleton, or even going near it.

As long as we didn't break these rules, which we didn't for the most part, we lived a blissful life free of hindrance. Mom and Dad made it clear—trust is something you earn, and you earn it by following the rules. You lose it by breaking the rules. And when you lose trust, you're not allowed to do things like wander the swamp.

But... I didn't always follow the third rule though every bone in my body screamed at me to listen. Sometimes, in the dead of night, I would steal away from the clearing. Like a ghost, I swept over the ground, never making a sound as I made my way through the swamp.

The skull would always be sitting silent and foreboding the same spot, at the end of the upper path. I always found that I was surprised, as if I hadn't expected it to be there. Closer I would go, to that giant, long-dead snake, until I was close enough to touch the giant teeth that were illuminated by the moonlight. I almost would, but then I would be gone, tearing away as if all the frogweeds in the world were after me.

I don't know what drew me to that skull. Perhaps it was simply the mystery of it all. Mom and Dad never explained, never told us _why _we weren't allowed in it. If you tell a child not to do something but don't explain to them why, all it does is make them want to do it more. I didn't like sneaking around like that behind Mom and Dad's backs... They trusted us, trusted that we would follow their rules, not lie or do anything bad. I felt undeniable guilt, no doubt about it, and the fact that I was technically lying by saying nothing—not even to Spyro—only made it worse.

But that snake, it had a pull on me, like how the moon did to the ocean. I couldn't stay away, and with every day that went by, the desire to unravel the mystery of the skeleton grew more and more powerful. But I still hadn't the nerve to actually go inside it, or even touch it. That was about to change.

Anyway, we soon approached what I called the Tunnel. It wasn't actually a tunnel; only a part of the upper path. But the mushrooms on either side of this place blocked out every bit of the sun, so it rather seemed like it. The Tunnel was a small area. The path cut off here and veered straight down into a ditch filled with ankle-high standing water. This was a favorite spot for young mosquitoes, so I often raced as quickly as I could through it—those old mosquitoes could still worm their way past my scales and tough skin below, and their bite stung and itched like crazy. Above the water, roots from the great mushrooms stuck out of the packed dirt, tangled and old and not supportive of our weight.

"What's the matter, little Spyro and Crystal, you can't fly? Oh, that's right; you walk everywhere. Mm, that's too bad," Sparx called as he easily flew over the mass of roots.

Spyro scoffed. "You're toast when I catch you!" he yelled.

Sparx's words were a challenge. Usually we jumped into the water and climbed up onto the other side, but this time we were going to be a bit more daring. We ran quickly across the roots, side-by-side, nimbly jumping over the frequent inequalities. The roots broke under our weight, but we made it to the other side with little problem, though I nearly fell right into the water as the last root broke under me.

Unfortunately, Sparx flew away before we could tag him. He turned and flew backwards, facing us as we stalked forward, in order to call out more taunts. My face contorted as a frogweed ambled up behind him.

Frogweeds were... well, frog weeds. The literally looked like living weeds. Four red arms stick out of their sides, like the roots we had just encountered, and the same number of feet allowed them to waddle and hop slowly about. Their round stomach was green, and they lacked a face, having only an ever-open mouth with a long white tongue stuck comically out of it. They occasionally croaked like frogs, and their singing could be heard at dusk.

"Um, Sparx?" I asked, raising a claw to point behind him, but my brother wasn't listening.

"Ah, must be tough to lose all the time, Cr—AAH!" Sparx screamed as the frogweed lashed out a long, sticky, frog-like tongue and caught Sparx, swallowing him.

"Alright, let me out of here you overgrown fungus..." Sparx said from the frogweed's stomach. "Er, Crys? Forget all that stuff I just said. Lend me a hand, will ya, sis?" His voice was muffled but I could just barely make out his words.

I snorted and said in a stilted voice, "I dunno, Sparx, frogweeds have got to eat too—although I must say, you have to taste terrible."

"SPYRO, WHACK IT!" Sparx yelled, turning to my more merciful twin for support, and whined, "Do something! I'm your buddy... My wings are getting moldy."

I grinned at Spyro, who only rolled his eyes at me. We unceremoniously hit the frogweed in the stomach. That was their weak point, Mom had said; their stomach was soft and exposed. Sparx came flying out of the frogweed's mouth and hit Spyro in the chest before sliding to the ground, while in the meantime the frogweed wailed and retreated into the safety of the ground.

"Ugh, now I smell almost as bad as you do," Sparx muttered, picking himself off the ground. "Ooh-hoo-hoo, and that's pretty bad. See you later, sucker!" He grinned and flew away before either of us could move.

"So much for gratitude," Spyro said, rolling his eyes.


	4. …With a Complicated Conclusion

Heading forward at an almost leisurely pace, Spyro and I soon came upon brittle green-brown vines that blocked off the path. I attempted to slip through much like Sparx had done moments ago, but didn't have quite as much luck as he did and got tangled.

"Um, Spyro, a little help please?" I asked, pulling at the vines in a fruitless attempt to free myself. One was wrapped around my wrist and I was suspended in the air by the numerous ones that held fast to my waist; the sun-baked vines were ready to break at any moment. Spyro cut the vines with an ivory claw and I dropped to the ground.

"Thank you," I huffed, shaking myself off.

"No problem," was the absentminded reply; Spyro had spotted Sparx and quickly followed him as he disappeared around a corner.

We ran into a little clearing utterly devoid of anything except the mushrooms that fringed its edge, and there four frogweeds greeted us. I sighed—how many of these things _were _there—and killed them by butting into their stomachs and ramming them into the mushroom stalks. Frogweeds were weak. They were only dangerous to a lone dragonfly or when they congregated.

"These things are more annoying than Sparx," I mildly joked, getting a crooked half-grin from Spyro.

We followed the pathway to some more vines, but I knew well enough not to try and slip through this time. Luckily, it was midsummer, so the vines were a bit more dry than usual. Some snapped easily, and the others could be cut down with no issue.

As I ran through the passages, sweeping through long shadows spotted with patched of sunlight, the occasional pool of water splashing under my feet, I couldn't help but notice with trepidation that we were reaching the end of the path—and at the end of the path was the snake. Surely Sparx would stop before we reached it... right?

I quickly forgot my worries. The gold gnat was right in front of me now, barely an arm's length away. I picked up the pace and sprinted forward, faster, faster, almost there, just a few more feet—and then I skidded to a stop so suddenly, throwing myself back, that a pile of dirt formed in front of me. Pupils constricted into minuscule dots, I stared up in utter shock.

Sparx had flown up to the forbidden snake skull, and would you believe, was floating right between its teeth.

Until that moment, I had not realized that he had done this on purpose. He had lead us towards the skull so as to trick us inside it. To me, this was shocking. I know what I had been doing was no better, sneaking about, but I had never actually gone into it nor did I plan to. Besides, a little curiosity couldn't be helped, but to directly and purposely disobey Mom and Dad...

I was young. My mind was limited to "that isn't fair", "that isn't right", and everybody else was expected to follow along. I knew nothing of the world, where rules were broken and all "fairness" was disregarded. When things that weren't right happened, they just happened, and you couldn't do a thing to change it.

"Hey, t-that's cheating, we're not allowed in there!" Spyro exclaimed apprehensively, his voice nearly cracking in fear. He knew as well as I did what Sparx was trying to do.

"Ah, pfft. Excuses, excuses. Catch up or give up, chunky!" Sparx taunted with a wave of goodbte before flying in the mouth and subsequent body of the snake.

I looked at Spyro. Surely not even he would want to go? Spyro was supposed to be the responsible one; the level-headed guide who _never _did anything wrong. But he only gave me a reassuring look, and I knew that we were both thinking we needed to look after Sparx and make sure he didn't get hurt in there.

Besides, a rebellious fire had always burned in me and it shone brighter than ever before now. So, with a sigh and a pricking conscience, I allowed my curiosity to get the best of me. Wiggling through the teeth, shuddering as I wondered what on earth they might have devoured and if unusually large dragonflies were on the menu, I emerged into the crushing darkness and followed Spyro.

I looked warily back through the gaps between the fangs towards home. Mom and Dad wouldn't suspect a thing. But was this right?

Shaking my head, I turned and followed Spyro, wading through what I hoped was standing water. I ignored my conscience, who was now screaming its metaphorical head off. _Danger! _it yelled. _Red light—don't proceed! _Smothering the voice, I continued plodding along.

The snake's stomach smelled, frankly, rotten—every breath I took was sickening and nearly made me expel the contents of my lunch. Years of death and decay had caused the stench. The rib cage of the snake and its thick scaly hide were still intact. As I walked through the deathly silent body, a feeling that was a mix of fear and awe came over me. I shivered. It was so cold all of a sudden...

"Where's that little gnat gone now?" Spyro wondered aloud, breaking the silence. I glanced at him uneasily; the same dread that seemed to wrap itself around me like my blanket didn't have any effect on him.

I nearly flew through the roof when Sparx called out, his voice echoing through the small chamber. "Hey, has anyone seen two giant, purple things around here? I seem to have lost mine..."

Spyro chuckled and I allowed myself to laugh a bit too, dispelling a bit of my previous fear; the two of us then raced after Sparx. When he saw us charging toward him, he gasped and shot away, gone in a moment.

"Get back here, you glow stick!" I yelled, paws splashing in the water as I followed Spyro deeper and deeper into the snake.

Spyro and I only paused to slip under a tangle of vines that had grown over part of the snake's stomach, but other than that, we never stopped out relentless chase to catch Sparx. I was absolutely determined to get him now. He had taken us this far, and darn it, I wasn't going to let him get away with it without being tagged!

The snake's tail was missing; instead, its body seemed to have been sliced off, as if an axe-wielding giant had come down upon it. At the end of the snake was a small clearing, an island in the Swamp cut off from all other parts, with only a cliff at the far side of it.  
Spyro saw the movement before I did and I locked onto it a moment later, but Sparx, who was flying backwards to face us, did not see it at all.

"You know, this is getting a little boring..." Sparx complained, but just as he turned around to continue his rush forward, he came face-to-face with... What on earth _was _it? I only saw a blur of something with brown fur jumping from the cliff, and a moment later Sparx was gone—as the creature stilled, I could see him in a small cage that, much to my horror, seemed to be made of bone. The startled Sparx, realizing what had just happened, only then just screamed.

"Sparx!" Spyro and I cried, dashing forward—but we weren't fast enough.

With astonishing acrobatic skills, the creature jumped onto the cliff. Now that he was standing completely still, I could take note of his appearance, and I was disgusted. The monster, whatever it was, had dirty brown fur covered in some sort of hide armour. His face was ugly, gaunt, and white, with small and squinty eyes, glaring at me from their hollows, sunken deep into its skull.

The creature spoke up; its voice was rough and growly and its drawling speech lacked grammar. "I thought all-a you guys was gone." His tone was a thoughtful murmur. But what did he mean...?

"You miserable coward, let me go!" Sparx threatened, angrily shaking his fist.

The strange creature chuckled, amused, then turned behind him. "Don't let 'em get away!"

I looked around in confusion, wondering who the comment was directed at. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, more of the strange creatures emerged—some slipped from the shadows surrounding us, while others emerged at the top of the cliff and jumped down. Though some of them had orangish-brown or grey pelts and wore different armour, they seemed to only be smaller clones of their presumed leader.

Narrowing my eyes, I crouched down into a fighting stance as I faced the enemies, ready to fight for Sparx. I would _not _let them get away with him.

One of the creatures laughed, his sickly yellow eyes flashing, as if he didn't consider us worthy opponents. Now that he was distracted, I took the chance to dive in, instinct taking over me. One clawed paw cut open his chest with a single swipe, while the other slit his throat and cut the lifeline. I remained standing there, glaring down at him, as he dropped to the ground, blood pouring from his throat down his chest and marring his fur. I only came to when he... died. Blinking as shock overtook me, I stood motionless and looked at my claws in astonishment, the ivory streaked with redness. I... killed him... And he bled...

I wasn't used to blood; just the sight of my own made me shudder. And I definitely wasn't used to... killing things. Frogweeds and toadweeds, they didn't count, and I had never even been able to chase down what little life there was in the Swamp, so I lived off the more abundant fruits, vegetables, and mushrooms that grew rampant around there. I wasn't a born killer, and this just stupefied me... It was all happening too fast...

I was taken off-guard as one of the creatures was suddenly on my back, and it _bit _me. Yelling out in pain, I threw the monster off me and, groaning, I touched my head. When I brought my paw back, it was coloured with my own blood. Now I was angry.

Turning to the one who had bitten me, sitting dazed on the ground, I bit it in return. Immediately I pulled back, coughing and spitting out dirty fur. Yuck! Those things tasted _terrible; _a mix of dirty fur, mud, and bugs. I certainly refrained from biting after that.

The awful taste in my mouth was the least of my problems. Wave of after wave of the monsters were coming after Spyro and me; we were fighting for our lives now, a race for survival as they began to overwhelm us. It only got worse from then. The leader began to throw things down at us, a red stick with a burning fuse sticking out of it. Confused, I stared at it until I realized what it was and jumped away—a moment too late.

The explosion sent me flying. I had never felt pain like this before. My whole body screamed in protest as I slammed into the cliff and fell down to the ground. My vision flickered and dimmed, and my head began to pound. Spyro ran over to me, yelling something that distorted in my head, perhaps my name. I felt his paw on my shoulder, pushing me, felt him grab my paw and haul me to my feet. I could hardly stand and just about fell right back down again. Shaking my head, my sight returned to normal, but my head continued to pound and my body ache from the impact. As I leaned on Spyro and he led me to the middle, I couldn't help but wonder how on earth I hadn't been knocked unconscious.

That didn't matter right now, though. The leader's little soldiers lay littered around us, every last one of them dead, and the leader himself was focused on Sparx. Sparx had been yelling his head off throughout the whole battle and I could tell the creature was getting irritated.

"Let me out of here and fight me like a... thing... whatever you are. You pathetic wretch!" Sparx exclaimed, grabbing the bars and shaking them.

The leader jumped off the cliff and slammed Sparx's cage on the ground so hard that he hit his head on the ceiling and was just about knocked out. "Nnnyah!" the creature growled. "I've had about enough of you!" He raised a foot, intending to stomp on the cage and crush Sparx.

"Sparx, look out!" Spyro screamed, making the dazed dragonfly start. I could feel my brother's panic and desperation that resounded clearly in his voice.

For the first time in my life, I was truly afraid, completely and utterly terrified. And, too, I felt helpless—Sparx was going to _die _and I couldn't do a thing about it. Despair welled up inside me as I faced this, but anger too bubbled up. How dare this monster come into my home, attack us, and kill my brother!

The next few seconds seemed to be in slow motion. I could feel myself tensing as my throat burned—not like a sore throat, but _literally _burning, like fire was inside me. No longer in control, something else was driving me, taking control of me. I exhaled sharply, but it wasn't air that came out of my mouth. It was fire, a wave of it that came rushing out like a river, leaving the roof of my mouth tingling with pain as the flames ceased.

The wave of fire that had burst out of my mouth—and Spyro's too, as I noticed—burned the leader and stopped his foot in the middle of his journey. He was so surprised that he fell backwards and landed on the ground, just laying there in stupefied shock. Spyro and I had just barely saved Sparx from a terrible death.

I stared at a dumbfounded Spyro and he stared back at me. Our mouths slowly opened as if we wanted to say something, but there were no words to describe what we felt. We had just breathed fire. ...We had just breathed fire!

"Wooo..." Sparx said slowly, just as surprised as we were. "Was that _fire?" _Gripping the bars of the cage, he stared at us.

Meanwhile, the leader stood up and jumped back onto the cliff, showing off his acrobatic prowess once more. The fur on his chest was singed black, I noticed, a fact that made me grin in triumph and relief. "Take care of 'em! I've gotta report to Cynder!" he shouted to his henchmen, turning and running out of sight into the swamp.

The last few of his soldiers jumped from the cliff and slowly approached us, though they did so with a bit of apprehension. All I could do was shake my head in surprise. This had to be a dream... Strange monsters, fire breathing, and some person called _Cynder? _There was no way this could be real!

At the moment, though, I put this aside and attacked the creatures with my new-found powers. I was a bit shaky at first, scared to release the fire for fear I would burn myself, but it actually didn't take long to get the hang of. The creatures that were previously too overwhelmingly strong were now easy to defeat.

When the last monster had fallen, Sparx started up his yelling again. "Get me outta here, you two, I think my wings are singed!"  
Spyro, exchanging glances with me, knocked the cage away with his horns, opening the bottom slot and freeing Sparx. "You okay?" Spyro asked.

"You almost torched me, dude," Sparx said flatly as if this was just an everyday statement. He paused, the shock finally hitting him. "Wait..."

Sparx stared at us in awed silence and I finally realized the full extent of what had just happened—and, too, I realized what it meant. This was the last bit of evidence I needed to confirm something I had, perhaps, known all along.


	5. Leaving Home

"They breathed fire!" Sparx yelled so loudly that the whole world could hear him, waving his arms in the air for emphasis.

I wasn't completely sure whether or not we should tell Mom and Dad about what had just happened, not to mention explain to them that we had broken a major rule, but Sparx made up his mind for us.

"So I'm just about to blow the top off that place and kick that guy's booty,"—I rolled my eyes, a gesture Sparx completely ignored—"when Spyro and Crystal here let out some serious flames, dude. No joke. Flames. From the mouth."

"Well... I-I was just trying to help," Spyro said sheepishly.

"Yeah, well, some help. You nearly turned me to ashes." Sparx crossed his arms indignantly.

I shot Sparx a warning glare. I didn't care about him taking the credit for killing all those _things_, but he ought to have been a bit more appreciative about Spyro and I kind of saving his life! I nearly shuddered just thinking about what had almost happened...

Sparx turned to our parents, ignoring me once again. "Mom, Dad, you should've seen them! They came out breathing _fi-ya_... Alright? It was crazy!"

Mom and Dad hovered near us; we were sitting just outside the treehouse. The sun was beginning to set. But even in the dimming light, I could see Mom and Dad exchange glances, not saying a word. I detected something on their faces... almost like distress.

"You don't believe me!" Sparx exclaimed indignantly, crossing his arms before turning to me and commanding, "Tell 'em what happened, Crystal."

"He's not lying," I said. "One of the creatures there was attacking Sparx, and Spyro and I, we just got really scared, opened our mouths, and... we breathed fire." I wasn't doing a good job explaining just what had happened, the shock and fear that had coursed through me, but it would do.

"It's not that, Crystal," Dad said, glancing at Mom and scratching the back of his head nervously. "We believe you all, it's just... Your mother and I knew this day would come. We just hoped it would be a long time before it did..."

"What day?" I didn't like the way he had said that...

"The day... when we would have to tell you the truth."

~~...~~

"So... you—you mean, I'm not your real son?" Spyro's voice resounded with pain. He was sitting down, looking at the ground, unsure what to think.

"And I'm not really your daughter?" I gazed up at Mom and Dad, sadness shining in my eyes. We had been told that we weren't dragonflies after all... We weren't related at all...

"You _are _our real children," Mom said. "It's just that you came from somewhere else. Far away, where wars rage on and on, and the innocent always seem to pay the price."

I shook my head and stood up. "I... I just need time to think..."

Mom and Dad didn't stop us as Spyro and I, head down, trudged away as quickly as we could. A few moments later, I burst into a sprint, running up the hill. Instead of following the upper path, though, I took a left and headed into a small wooded area that peered down into the clearing. That was where I stopped, dropping flat onto the ground near cliff as if I were a limp rag and staring blankly into the darkness below.

I knew before that day; somehow I had always known... Always suspected... But I had pushed the thought aside. Impossible, I had thought. But not as impossible as I had thought before.

"But if we're not dragonflies, what are we?" I murmured to Spyro, but he didn't even look at me. He didn't know the answer either and there was no point in asking.

Three glows, one red, one blue, and one yellow appeared in the clearing, a few faint lights against the crushing darkness. I watched the three as they headed towards their house, following another path, until they disappeared into the endless black of night.

I considered approaching Mom and Dad after that, demanding why they hadn't told us before. At first I was angry with them, feeling betrayed by my own parents... If they even were my own parents... But after that anger was given time to evaporate, I realized they had just been doing what they thought was best for us. And it _was _the best thing to do, of course. But now I was left with an emptiness, a what-do-I-do feeling that wouldn't go away.

The next few days were quiet. I didn't sleep, hardly ate, and spent most of my time in silence with Spyro. If anybody had looked up at the area above the clearing, they would have seen four purple eyes gazing stoically back at them. I told myself all throughout these few hard days that I was a big girl of nine, too old to cry. If I hadn't thought this I would have broken down. It was just devastating, learning that my family wasn't really my family after all...

Spyro and I did some thinking. We pondered for a long time over our decision, talking quietly to each other for hours on end. We didn't want to do it, but we had to and we knew it—if we didn't do this, it would tear at us for the rest of our lives. So, with a heavy heart, we approached our family and told them the decision we had reached.

Spyro and I were going to leave.

We needed to find our home, to learn what we really were. Somewhere out there was something or someone that could tell us everything, show us the truth. We had no other choice but to go.

Mom and Dad were reluctant to let us leave, being that we were so young, and not to mention they didn't want us to turn up dead. But in the end, they decided we could go. I suppose they understood what we were going through and decided that forcing us to stay, spend the rest of our life in the dark, would be worse than allowing us to leave.

And then the day finally came; the day when it was time for us to go. I wanted to stay, stay with my... adopted family just a little longer, but I knew if we allowed ourselves to, we wouldn't go at all. It was now or never; Spyro and I chose now.

The setting sun danced over the edge of the earth, giving off the last of its bright illumination as the day drew to a close. Twilight was coming fast. Usually, Spyro and I would travel by day, but we would need the cover of the night. More of those ugly creatures were bound to be out there.

Mom and Dad were waiting at the path for us when Spyro and I, finished gathering a bit of food and filling the bag that we had dug out of our treasure-box with it, headed for the exit. Just before we reached it, though, Sparx flew in front of us and blocked our path.

"So that's it, huh? Leaving Sparx behind at the old homestead? Not a care in the world... don't look back," he said with a coldness in his voice that made my heart break.

Why couldn't he understand? I didn't want to leave him behind... I didn't even want to leave, period. But I had to know what I was, or else it would just eat away at me forever...

"This is your home, Sparx. But I just found out that my home is somewhere out there... and I've got to find it. Besides, I'm not leaving you behind, I'm just leaving you where you belong," Spyro said, saying everything I couldn't find the voice to myself.

"Well, I thought I belong with you. 'Cause I'm always with you. But I guess I was wrong, huh? I'm sure I'm wrong on a lot of things. You know what? You're right, I'm wrong." Before I could even open my mouth to call after him, he was gone.

Tears sprung into my eyes and I couldn't hold them back. Three fat drops streaked down my face, but how could I have helped it? Everything was going wrong...

"Don't worry about him, you two," Dad, who had witnessed the scene, reassured as he and Mom flew over to us. "You know how hotheaded he can be. You'll see him when you get back."

_If we get back, _I thought glumly, closing my eyes to hold back anymore tears from falling, while Spyro lowered his head sadly. We didn't want to leave with Sparx thinking of us like that.

"Now, now. Keep your head up, your nose clean, and use that breath of your wisely. All gifts come with a price," was the advice Dad gave us. I shook my head sadly—that couldn't help us.

"Don't listen to your father's preaching," Mom said, flying over to us. With one hand she lifted Spyro's head so he might gaze sadly at her and with the other she wiped away the tears on my face. "Just be yourself. It's all any of us can do."

I allowed a sad smile to slip onto my face; it was the only thing I could do to reassure them that we were alright. I was going to miss my family... Miss all those thoughtless, happy days playing in the Swamp, when I didn't have to worry about who I was—because what I _was _was simply me. Crystal the Dragonfly, even if I was an extremely mutated dragonfly. Except now I was Crystal the Exile, an unknown creature from some place far away, with no biological family to speak of and no place to call home anymore.

We said our goodbyes and set off without another word, travelling down the worn path. I looked back once; Mom and Dad were still there, lingering as they watched us go. After a moment, Mom turned and flew off to go after Sparx. Dad, with a final glance after us, trailed after her. Sighing, I turned my attention to the long road ahead.

~~...~~

We left. We left the only home we had ever known in search of... something else. Anything else. There were countless things for us to find, some good, some bad, and all of them life-changing... but what we did not know was that the worst and most terrible thing of all was out there, and it was waiting for us.

The legend begins now.

Spyro and I walked, side by side, matching each other's every step. The small leather bag was strapped over my shoulder and filled with food—we didn't know where we were going and we thought it better safe than sorry to bring something to eat in case there was nothing to scavenge. For now, it was everything we would need for a few days.

We walked with our heads down, uncaring of whatever perils might lay before us. I blinked and raised my heavy head as a shadow passed over me, but there was nothing in sight. Faint laughter echoed through the swamp, but what cold and taunting laughter it was... Startled, I whipped around, but there was nothing here.

_What is it?_

_It's nothing, Crystal, we're just hearing things._

_Spyro, we can't BOTH be hearing things._

Spyro remained silent after that, but I could feel his apprehension as he glanced uneasily about the area. I too looked around, a prickle of fear in my heart; I felt as if something or someone was watching me. Turning sharply towards a bush as I heard a crackle, I swear I saw something move, diving back into the prickly depths. Spyro and I stopped mid-step and looked around frantically. At that moment I regretted coming in the night.

Spyro raised up onto his hind legs in an attempt to see something, but the darkness shrouded anyone who was around. Fleeting shadows washed over us, as if something was jumping over the mushroom-tops above. But when I looked up, the shadows ceased and there was nothing but the stars and the moons looking back at me. Sinister cackles could be plainly heard now, bounding and rebounding over the swamp so that I wasn't sure if I was hearing just one laugh or many.

I sniffed the air, trying to catch the scent of something, anything, and I smelled it, wrinkling my nose at the smell—the same creature that had attacked us earlier. My heart skipped a beat and I glanced at Spyro; I could tell he was more scared than even I was.

I looked around again, but I still couldn't see anything... Yet I just knew there was something there. The creatures were toying with us.

When a loud, animalistic howl resounded through the passageway, we lost it. Breaking into a mad dash for survival, we rushed forward, out paws pounding on the ground. I slipped into a patch of slippery mud once, but undaunted, I scrambled to my feet and continued. I wanted to scream, but I knew that would just let them locate our location, so I stayed perfectly silent all except for my sharp, heavy breaths.

We ran on and on for what seemed like forever. Even once we were sure we had outrun them, we merely continued sprinting until my legs ached unbearably, a sharp pain screamed in my stomach, and I could hardly gasp for air through every bound. Eventually, we reached a small clearing, where I slowed to a stop, panting heavily, and sighed with relief.

But this wasn't over yet. I was sure of that.


	6. Friendship Unbroken

I carefully walked down the hill upon catching my breath and took a few unsteady steps into this strange clearing, looking around in confusion. I knew the Swamp well, but I had left familiar territory a while ago. Uneasily, I glanced at the tall cliffs enclosing this small area that held only mushrooms and not the creatures I had expected to see staring back down at us.

I took a few more paces forward; the moons whose light shone unobstructed here seemed to calm me. Peering across the clearing, I spotted two of the more uncommon mushrooms; large and orange, they spat out odd-smelling steam every few minutes. The hiss as they did so startled me. It wasn't until then that I noticed how tense I was; I expected to see those things around every corner.

Spyro and I walked forward, but we didn't get far. Three of the very territorial frogweeds, sensing our presence, climbed out of their leaf-covered burrows. Before they could get very far, though, Spyro breathed a burst of fire that sent two reeling back into the holes they came from, while I swiped at the other with my tail, the unusually sharp end cutting it open and killing it. I was relieved at the lack of blood.

I followed Spyro as he led me to a natural ramp that sloped around the clearing and led into another area I couldn't see. Beside the ramp was a beetle nest; the sight of it made me tense as bad memories rushed back to me. Quickly, though, I shook them off. No time for that now.

Following the narrow path, I paid little heed to my surroundings and walked right past a type of mushroom I had never seen before—pale yellow-grey with glowing red diamonds circling around its top. I didn't notice it at all until it began to shake, startling me. By the time I whirled around to face this "mushroom", it had already climbed out of the ground, revealing eight long, flat legs that were sharpened to points at the end, and a face with tiny black eyes and short, sharp teeth that were bared at us menacingly.

It was a bulbspider! I had never seen one before; they didn't often live near the wetter parts of the swamp and instead elected to stay on high, dry ground. But Mom had given me an accurate description of what they looked like and how they acted. They weren't particularly powerful, Mom had told me, but they preferred to use stealth to advantage and take their prey by surprise. The spiders would sneak up on them and snatch them up with the sticky tips of their legs, devouring them whole in a second.

A shiver ran down my spine and I took a few steps back. Crystal was _not _on the menu today. The bulbspider, hissing with much venom, swiped at Spyro with one of its legs—he ducked just in time and came up unscathed. A wave of anger washed over me then; how dare this stupid spider try to hurt my brother!

With a burst of courage, I leapt into the air like the little green grasshoppers that jumped along the bank of the river. Landing on the bulbspider's perfectly round head, I bit into the soft head and shook. After a few moments, I succeeded in tearing a piece of the delicate, spongy flesh out, and I hopped off before the spider could hit the ground as life quickly left it. Yellow goop spilled out of the torn head, sticking to the ground.

_Yuck, _I thought, quickly turning away and continuing up the side-enclosed passageway. Another spider attacked us, but using my fire, I quickly put it out of its misery and continued on without a second thought.

After about ten minutes of uneventful walking, we reached a chasm. Glancing warily down at the darkness far below, I exchanged glances with Spyro and we carefully glided across the gap to the solid ground on the other side.

_Gliding, _I thought bitterly as I landed. That was all I had ever been able to do. I hated it, being confined to the ground, never able to soar through the air like Mom or Dad or Sparx did. What was the point of having wings if you couldn't fly with them?

Looking around as I sensed a new presence, I took a few cautious steps forward. Just then, I saw a flash, and then flying before me was someone I couldn't be happier to see.

"Spyro, Crystal..." I nearly sighed with relief as I heard Sparx's familiar face. "So, ah, me and the old man were chatting, and this whole... belonging thing, you know, came up, and we decided that... best friends belong together. Even if two of them are purple and do have some weight issues." For once Sparx's mischievous grin filled me with happiness instead of irritation, and I was more than overjoyed to take one of his silly jokes about how fat we were.

"Weight issues, huh? Well, at least I've never been turned into a lantern," Spyro said with a smile. I rolled my eyes at his terrible retort, but Spyro ignored me.

"Oh, please; lantern schmantern," Sparx said with a roll of his eyes and a grin on his face, taking the reminder lightly. Pointing to the pathway that lay ahead of us with a childish excitement in his eyes, he exclaimed, "Let's see what's out there!"

And just like that, everything was as it should be; we were siblings once more and any resentment left between us was gone. The frightened, alone feeling, as if I wasn't whole without Sparx by my side, went away. I did have Spyro to keep me company, true, but without Sparx, everything was just sort of... empty. I smiled to myself as I followed Sparx, lighting up the path for us; the little golden dragonfly would stick with us no matter what happened.

I threw a glance up into the sky to check the position of the moons. It was past midnight now; we had set out three or four hours ago and still much of the swamp lay before us. I couldn't help but wonder if it ever ended.

I paused in my tracks to gaze at the twinkling stars for a moment while my oblivious companions headed onward. If only I knew exactly where we were going, which direction to follow, the lights could have been a helpful guide. I knew how to use the stars as a makeshift compass; the constellations were my guide. But now we where just travelling blindly...

The thought made me stop again. Where were we to travel; where, exactly, _was _home? None of us had ever been outside the Swamp or met the creatures who lived there... We had heard of them, the wolves who travelled in packs, resenting outsiders; the bears, territorial creatures who knew nothing more than to attack the passersby who happened to wander too close; and other, worse things. There could be a million different creatures out there we didn't know about... What if they were hostile? What if they were bigger than us? Then what?

I put my fears to rest as once again we were confronted by the annoying bulbspiders. I had all the time in the world to worry as we continued to wearily travel; now we needed to pay attention. One of the spiders before us had red markings on its head while the other had yellow. Surely they were a mated pair. I remembered Mom had mentioned how to tell their genders: yellow for male and red for female.

Luckily, the fire-intolerant bulbspiders shriveled under our flames, and they were soon quickly disposed of in a few breaths, allowing us to continue on unhindered. Turning a bend, we soon came to a small dirt cliff a few feet off the ground standing over a small valley, its only notable feature an old, bent tree surrounded by masses of tangled roots. Peering over the edge, I spotted more of the monsters that had been trailing us the past few hours patrolling down there.

Shivering at the sight of them, I tried to back off, but the leader of the small battalion noticed us before I could hide. Banging his dull iron sword on a steel-plated wooden shield to rally the others, he crowded up to the cliff and began to try and climb up, though this effort was fruitless as they only slipped back down.

Something instinctive swept over me; Spyro and I exchanged glances and he nodded, knowing what had overtaken me. Jumping into the air like a cat, I force myself down with all my strength, diving horn-first into the crowd. The leader was the one I hit, and despite my light weight, the impact threw him to the ground and the crack of his skull told me the trauma had killed him. Rolling off the disgusting creature, I avoided the incoming Spyro who took out another of the monsters. Backing off, we both breathed a torrent of flames that took care of the rest.

But our job wasn't done quite yet. Just as I continued heading for the path before us, ravine-like in that tall cliffs surrounded it, I happened to glance up at one of the cliffs and saw even more of these creatures standing on them. I stared in surprise as they jumped down as if committing suicide—but when they landed, they weren't harmed at all! They only stumbled a bit, legs shaking under the shock of the impact, and a few moments later were rushing for us.

This particular group was more agile than the last; ten of the creatures swarmed us and it was nearly impossible to hit them. They cartwheeled about, avoiding our blows, before jumping at us to take us off-guard or swing their mangy paws wildly and inflict many deep scratches on us. But Spyro and I were ever faster; we jumped, dived, bit (well, maybe not so much that), scratched, and hit them with all the strength in our young bodies. Poor things never stood a chance.

Finally, once we had the chance to keep going, I thought more about the odd, hostile creatures. It seemed these things had some form of intelligence, as they had a crude hierarchy system. The youngest and smallest ones, that stood about my height, were unimportant. They had little armour and more often than not didn't even have weapons. These Soldiers used their claws to attack and were weak.

Then there were the Leaders. They were a bit bigger than Spyro would be if he stood on his hind legs (as Spyro's height was just a tad taller than mine). They often carried swords and dynamite for weapons, and had thick leather or iron armor. They usually lead a group of around five or ten Soldiers. I'm sure there were more ranks, but so far this was all I had could put together from what I knew.

The fight raged on; we fought wave after wave of our adversaries, weaving through the crowd of howling Soldiers and we dodged their attacks and the explosion of dynamite thrown by the Leaders who stayed out of the direct fray. My luck with dynamite seemed to be little, because once again I was taken by surprise from the blast of one of the red sticks I hadn't noticed. Again I flew through the air, but thankfully rather than hitting the cliff I landed in the mud. Dirty and covered in the brown slime, but unharmed, I quickly returned to the fight—only to find it had finished, Spyro taking out the final Leader with ease.

Walking over to him, I grumbled, "Spyro?"

"What?"

"I need a bath," I said in disgust, wiping off the mud that still covered me.

Despite my disgruntlement with my appearance, I was ready to continue on with our long journey to escape the Swamp and make our way to elsewhere. Plodding forward, I led the others toward the ravine-path, hoping not to be interrupted yet _again. _However, my wishes were soiled—before I could even react, the brittle, sun-baked vines that obstructed the path before me seemed to explode, flying towards us.

I ducked quickly, and when I straightened, my eyes became bigger than the greatest moon as I stared in horror before me. There, towering above us as they slipped from the shadows and into the soft blue light, were two growths. I had never seen one, until now that is.

These monsters were only spoken of in terrified whispers and the frightening stories I so loved to tell as I did my best to frighten my siblings. Never had I ever thought I'd meet one of these creature, who seemed to be a piece of the swamp that had had life breathed into it; they were made of nothing other than tight, coiled vines with a beard of moss, the green plants also blanketing their whole body. Cutting through the layers of plant matter were two piercing eyes that glowed an evil red and struck utter terror in my heart.

I could only stare in frozen fear as the growths raised clubs made of the knotted, decaying wood of old trees and roared, the great noise seeming to resound over the whole world, before bringing their clubs down on the ground just before me and making and earthquake ripple through it. I don't think I'd ever been as terrified as I was then.

Finally, life sprung back into Spyro, Sparx, and I and almost simultaneously we dashed forward, running for our lives. No way could we fight those things! The outraged growths, as we dashed away, spit globs of poison after us that sizzled as it landed just behind us, eating away at any unfortunate plants that happened to be there.

Huffing and puffing as we ran through the dark passage, cliffs surrounding both sides, Spyro and I finally skidded to a stop. Sparx, who was out of breath as well, couldn't take the exertion he had just put on his small body. Groaning, he fell out of the air and remained still on the groan, still panting in exhaustion.

Ignoring Sparx as I figured he was just being dramatic as always, I squinted at the darkness behind us, trying to see if the growths had followed us in our hundred-mile sprint. Luckily, though, I did not see the hulking creatures' shadows, so I plopped to the ground and tried to catch my breath. Well, at least this answered my earlier question... if we encounter something bigger than us, we _run!_

Standing once my sides ceased to ache and I had finally gotten good, sweet air in my system, I turned to Sparx. "Are you okay?" I asked in concern. "Come on, we have to keep going."

Sparx, rising into the air, crossed his arms. "I wanna go home," he whined. "Come on, Crystal, let's just go back. There are frogweeds and spiders and crazy—vine... things, whatever, this is dangerous!"

"Go home then, Sparx," Spyro, who stood nearby scanning the path ahead of us, said. "You didn't have to come after us. We won't think any less of you if you don't want to stay."

"And we can't go back home, not now; I need to know what... who I am." I added, staring at the ground as if it would give all the answers.

Sparx faltered, but thinking for a moment, he said resolutely, "No, I'm not leaving you two do this on your own, no matter what happens."

I looked up. "Really?"

"You need me, right?" Sparx asked with a grin.

"Right." Though he was half-joking I couldn't help but smile widely back. I was just so glad, glad that he would stick with us until the end no matter how many obstacles befell us, no matter how many times all of us just wanted to run back home and forget any of this had ever happened—Sparx would always be there for us. That was enough.

And so, we continued onwards. The night wore on slowly for the next hour or so, and I began to grow tired from the exhaustion. The path was frequently obstructed, by pits, and chasms, and vines, and even the occasional Soldier. The bulbspiders did not make any more appearances; even _they _were asleep.

As we continued wandering through the narrow, twisting passageways, a single thought kept popping up in my mind: What were these Soldiers after? Whatever the monsters were, they certainly weren't from the Swamp or even the forest that surrounded it. They were just so strange...

So why had they come here, into the Swamp? What—who—could they possibly be after, here of all places?

_Us._

The thought hit suddenly, and though I tried to discredit it, I couldn't. I knew nothing of my parents, my past, what exactly had happened to set me off down the river... So it wasn't impossible that these creatures were hunting us down. However, it was too a ridiculous notion when I really thought about it—what in the world could be so special about _me _that someone would want me killed?

It must have been nearly two in the morning when, struggling to stay awake, we encountered the first enemy in a few hours. Not even the Soldiers bothered us anymore; it was as if they had all vanished.

Before we found her, though, we first had to cross a pit; not just any pit, though. Tangles of deadly-sharp thorns had grown for what seemed like years there, and now completely covered what was once merely a slight depression in the earth.

The pit was too long to merely glide over. If we tried, we would land right into the thorn bushes and be trapped there. Our journey might have ended there if not for the dead root that stuck out of the side of the dirt, much like the ones that formed an unstable bridge through the The Tunnel back at home, and it would probably break just the same.

Spyro, assessing the situation, exchanged a worried glance with me as if asking what to do. I nearly snorted; usually I looked to him to lead, but now he was asking me?

"We aren't going to make it across unless we go together," I said. "No turning back now. Come on!"

Exchanging glances, Spyro and I rocketed off the ledge at the precise same moment and landed on the old, bent branch. It snapped under our weight almost immediately, but we were already sailing over the pit of thorns, and in a moment we were safely on the ground; it was grassy here as we had reached the outer swamp where the forest spilled into the bog. I pulled off the landing perfectly, but Spyro, who always managed to be tripping over his feet in one manner or another, stumbled and nearly fell right onto his face. Shaking my head as he recovered, I shoved him forward.

Before us was a great basin-clearing and seemed to contain the least concentrated area of swampland. Mushrooms and trees happily grew branch-in-cap on the tall plateaus that surrounded this place. Besides that, a few swamp pines, enjoying the brief respite from the withering sun, sprouted out of the mushy grass and mud making up the ground, mixed into a rather interesting concoction.

Silently, I plodded forward into the middle of the field, the damp grass squelching under my paws. Uneasiness suddenly filled me and I tensed, turning my gaze to the blue-black sky. The stars were fading with the onset of dawn and the moons, growing in the night as they always did before returning to their small sizes the next day, were making their way towards the ground.

As I stared blankly into the darkness, a cold chill enveloped me and as fear seeped into my mind. I detected a strange scent on the light brush of cool wind—it smelled like Soldier, but there was also something else about it, something that reminded me of death and decay, and even more faintly the sickening smell of blood.

I saw it before I heard it; a black blob that streaked through the lightening sky like a hawk diving for its prey. A moment later, an ear-bursting roar pierced the air, sending shivers of terror throughout my body, and then it disappeared into the night.

It only seemed to hit all of us then. A moment ago, we had all been frozen in shock, and now we all immediately activated our flightresponse and began a mad dash for the thick cover of trees only a few yards away.

Spyro and Sparx both screamed as they dove for the safe cover of darkness, but besides gasps for breath I remained silent, mostly because I didn't want that _thing_ to pinpoint our location!

Sparx, who was nearly hyperventilating at this point, flew dazedly above us. "Breathe, Sparx, old boy, go to your happy place!" I faintly heard him squeak, and a moment later he we besides us again.

The shadows took us into their aura of safety as we fled under the thick treecover. Panting, I skidded to a stop and collapsed against the smooth bark of a young tree, then, groaning, fell into the mud. My sides throbbed painfully and I felt like I was suffocating.

Spyro, who was still struggling to catch his breath after our sprint, breathed out, "Wha-what in the world was _that?" _His pupils constricted at "that".

"I have no idea, but I'm going this way—far from it," Sparx said with a shaky laugh, shaking his head. Hurriedly he flew into the opposite direction from where we had come, and, groaning again, I managed to pull myself to my feet and slowly follow.

We continued forward from there at a bit of a faster pace than normal, even as the trees thinned and we broke into ever more clearings. I kept shooting glances at the sky, afraid I would see that black monster that smelled terrifyingly of death, but it was never there.

About fifteen minutes later, we finally reached the thicker areas of swampland, where the mushroom caps blocked out the sky and created a veil of darkness. Once here, we relaxed and slowed to a walk, now not so scared of roaring monsters who soared through the skies, for we were safe now.

By the time our journey truly began, after hours of wandering through the darkness, the moons were already well on their way down. Only three hours of night were left before the sun would breach the hazy sky. As we walked along, I just barely noticed something out of the corner of my eye—the dark, looming entrance of a cave cut into stone.

"Spyro, Sparx, a cave," I whispered, terrified to raise my voice though I knew the monster was long gone.

"Let stop for the night," Spyro said, his voice hushed as well. "We need to rest."

The only sound as we approached the entrance was the singing of frogweeds, beginning to die out now with the advent of morning. The cave's dark shadow fell over us and and seemed to swallow us whole. Sparx's dim glow barely shattered the crushing darkness, and I could hardly see my paw in front of my face and I slowly stepped inside.

I quickly picked up on the sound of heavy breathing as we went deeper into the narrow cave. At first I thought it was Spyro, but after a few moments I realized that his breaths were fast and shaky, not slow and deep, and Sparx didn't have enough air in him for this. So what...?

_There's something else in here. _I tensed as the thought hit me, and just as I did, I barely made out the silhouette of a form laying asleep in the darkness.

"Wait..." I said, my voice rising a bit louder than I intended.

The moment I uttered that word, the form that lay before me seemed to snap up from its position and I heard a low growl, barely audible though it was dead silent in here. I couldn't see any features of the creature that stood before me; all I knew was that it was bigger than I was. Much bigger.

It began to stalk forward, head bowed; its eyes glinted briefly in the light and I saw nothing less than coldness in them, the cold look the Soldiers had given me before they tried to kill me. Fear shot through me, rooting me to the spot like a mushroom though I wanted so much to run. All I managed to do was back away slowly, out of the darkness and into the fading moonlight, Spyro right after me.

As the creature saw us in the light, it stopped suddenly and straightened. We stood there for many agonizing moments, nobody moving, the whole world completely still.

Finally, it slowly began to step forward, into the light with us. His face, though barely visible in the dim light, now showed not coldness but shock, a look that was I was beginning to take on as I noticed more and more and began to connect the dots.

The second thing I noticed about him a was that he bore a rather large resemblance to us—though his colours were nothing similar, orange-red scales, wood-coloured underbelly and horns, and ovel-shaped amber eyes, his horns curved back just as ours did, he had a similar stature, and there was just something about him that reminded me of... us.

It hit me then: a realization, an epiphany, something that both overjoyed me—we found it, we had finally found it—and somehow scared me as well.

He was the same species as us.


	7. The Purple Dragons

We stood in silence for what seemed like hours, staring at each other in shock, no one willing to move or speak. My frenzied mind was having a hard time taking all of this in, and the fear that he, this person who was the same as us, had violent intentions. But I could not run—not after finally reaching the end of our journey, finally finding the one who could tell me what I was.

Little did I know that my journey had only just begun.

Much to my relief, my golden saviour broke the terrible silence. "And I thought _you_ two were huge. Goodness..." His voice was a mix of his usual sarcasm and a tone of breathy wonder as he stared up at the creature before us. Sparx was right—he was a lot taller than we.

"You're..." The tall creature before us gulped, soothing his harsh voice, roughened from what sounded like years of silence. "You're alive... And there's two of you? Twins..."

His voice had fallen into a contemplative murmur as he stared at us with wonder in his eyes. I backed away a pace again. Why was he looking at us like that? For some reason I couldn't quite put a claw on, it reminded me of Dad...

The bright eyes of the great orange giant suddenly flickered out and died. His gaze turned from us to the muddy ground and he shook his head. "But it doesn't matter that I've found you now. It's too late... Too late..."

My fear faded away then, replaced with curiosity and my burning desire to find out who I really was. This... thing... it didn't seem like he would hurt us. Though rough and old, his voice was also kind and gentle. And besides, he was wound up in my past somehow; that I could ascertain from his monologue. Maybe, just maybe, he could tell us everything.

Spyro found words before I could. "T-too late?" he stuttered, speaking so quickly that he stumbled over the words. "Too late for what?"

"How do you know us? Can you tell me where we come from?" I asked, firing my own volley of questions at the dragon who now stared at us with his mouth agape, trying to find a place to interject.

Spyro's voice began to rise as his excitement grew. "What are you? What are _we?"_

"WHAT AM I?!" Spyro and I cried in unison. We silenced then, waiting for the creature's answer with much anticipation. The shouting might not have been necessary to get our point across, but we were just so worked up—here, standing right before us, was our answer.

Our sentence-carrying seemed to confuse him, though, for he blinked and just stared at us for a moment. I suppose processing all of this was a bit overwhelming. Finally, confusion crossed his face, and he answered us with a question of his own. "You mean you don't know?"

"Does it _sound _like they know?" Sparx asked with his typical sarcasm.

"You're a dragon!" the great orange beast said in a tone implying that we should have known that already.

"Dragon?" Never had I heard of that before, but it had a certain ring to it; slid smoothly off my tongue and sang like music in the stillness of the dark. And it put some of my confusion to rest, soothed my heart that ached to seek out my true identity. Finally, I knew what I was: Crystal the Dragon. No longer must I be Crystal the Nothing-In-Particular.

"Yes, young one, dragon. And one of the only dragons left." The tall dragon continued in a somber tone, voice reflecting on remorseful times past, "When you were just an egg it was my job to protect you. It was my job... to protect all of you..." His eyes closed and pain flashed across his face. I couldn't help but wonder what had happened to him...

Not wanting to disturb him, I hesitantly asked, "Are the any other dragons?"

"Others?" Opening his eyes and gazing sadly at me, the dragon said, "There were."

"...Were?" I asked slowly. I had a bad feeling about what he meant by... were.

Spyro, Sparx, and I silenced ourselves, quelling our questions, and listened intently to the great dragon as he began his tale.. I knew from the start that it would not be a happy one; I sensed a very dark past hid behind this one's eyes.

"There were four of us—Guardians, that is—and we had one job: ensure that all the eggs were hatched. It was the Year of the Dragon, after all, and our very survival depended on those eggs. But the Temple and Grotto are now gone... Overrun by..." He trailed off, and I could see a bit of anger flashing through his eyes, not at us but at the ones who had done this.

"Temple?" Spyro asked, taking the chance the moment of silence afforded to interrupt. "What temple? Can you take us? Can I see it? Where we come from, I mean."

"No, no," the old dragon said quickly, shaking his head. "Who knows what forces occupy the Temple now; what state it's in. You don't understand... After they came for you..."  
_"They? _Who is _they, _and why did they come for _me?" _Spyro asked, raising his voice in desperation.

"Because the prophecies spoke of a purple dragon—or two in this case, but this is exceptionally rare. Which makes you even more of a threat. A purple dragon, after all, is only born once every ten generations. _You."_

"_'You'?" _Sparx asked scratchily, mimicking the dragon's hoarse voice. "What, you mean them? Wait—this lot? Spyro and Crystal, some special, once-in-a-purple thing?" He laughed, shaking his head in disbelief at what he was hearing. "I think you may have mixed that one up, old man. Woo... that's a little... bit of a stretch."

Spyro and I shot our respective death glares at him, while the fiery dragon just stared sternly, unamused. I considered smacking my comical brother with my tailblade, but decided to simply huff and roll my eyes. What was _that _supposed to mean?

"I've heard some, ah, doozies in my day, but this one takes the cake!" Sparx said, wisely finishing his spiel before I became irritated enough to teach him a hard lesson, though much to my annoyance his little gold body still shook with suppressed laughter.

Shaking his head at Sparx's antics, the old orange dragon said, "Spyro and Crystal, is it? Well, Spyro and Crystal, I assure you I'm telling the truth. The Dark Armies attacked, intent on destroying the eggs and killing the rest of us"—here Spyro and I exchanged wide-eyed glances; he'd said it as if Dark Armies attacking your home was just some everyday affair—"and they nearly succeeded. Few were left alive. Then, while our numbers dwindled, they lay siege to the rest of the islands. We were at war!

"For many years, we fought all over the islands. The brutal clashes with the armies of the Dark Master, who was intent on preventing the prophecies from coming true, consumed our lives. The three other Guardians and I led our small but valiant forces into battle after battle of our ruthless, mercenary foe. Then, just as we were beginning to turn the tide... Cynder came."

"C-Cynder?" Spyro stuttered. I shivered as he said this: the name made my blood run cold.

"Yes..." The Guardian bowed his head, recalling the terrifying memory. "Cynder. Cynder was... is... monstrous, horrific, ferocious. A black dragon that fills the skies with terror; an unstoppable force of nature..."

"Uh, yeah, you had me at ferocious," Sparx said, shaking his head. "Listen... sounds like the thing that was chasing us, Spyro."

"You're right," I murmured, recalling the black streak that shot like lightning through the sky; it was here for a moment and then it was gone.

"Yes. She still searches for me. And years ago I watched as Cynder plucked the other Guardians from the fields of battle... like so many ripe grapes from a vine. Without them, our cause is lost. Only I, Ignitus, managed to escape." The old Guardian—Ignitus—turned his remorseful gaze from us to the ground. "Not that it matters. Cynder now rules all... and I sit here wondering what might have been. What else I might have done."

As Ignitus finished his dark tale and bowed his head, I could only stare at him with utter shock on my face, my delicate, still-innocent heart wrenching just at the thought of going through such torture. What a nightmare...

"Wow..." said Sparx quietly, just as shocked as I was. Attempting to lighten the mood, he continued, "Sounds... fun. I wanna hang out with this guy." However, for once his jokes couldn't make even me smile; the solemnity would not be penetrated.

"Why have you given up like that, Ignitus? I just find out that Crystal and I are some sort of special dragon, but you tell me all is still lost? That we have no home or family left?" Spyro gazed at the ground and his eyes narrowed. "No... We've come way too far to give up now, after all of this. I wanna see where I come from."

"Whoa, whoa whoa—" His face distorting, Sparx flew in front of my twin who stared with a mix of pleading and defiance at Ignitus. "Hold up, saviour boy, were you not listening to this guy or something? He's talking about flying dragons and war and horrible... this is bad stuff, alright? I don't think we're hearing the same thing."

"Your friend is right, Spyro, it's not as simple as that. The prophecies did speak of a purple dragon destined to put a stamp on this age, but they did not foretell the devastation that surrounds us now." With that, Ignitus shook his head as if to end the discussion completely.

"Maybe you're right..." Spyro began, the energy falling out of his eyes as if he was about to give up, and perhaps he would have if I hadn't spoken up.

"Or maybe he's not," said I, stepping forward and gazing squarely up at Ignitus; I was not willing to take no for an answer. "You can't just spend your life living by a 'maybe' because some old dusty prophecies say there's no reason to go on. The future is never set in stone—it changes, it's always _different. _It's what you make of it. If we just sit here in this cave waiting around then your prophecies will come true, but if we try then maybe we can find some hope, a reason to go on." I stopped here, out of breath and surprised at the speech that had come out of my mouth; the words had just spilled out of me unbidden.

Ignitus turned his gaze to Spyro, and then to me; he sighed and closed his eyes. I could tell by the pained look on his face that he wanted to say no, but somehow he just couldn't. Opening his weary amber eyes, he nodded, causing me to break into a wide, ecstatic smile.

"Very well then, young dragons. I will take you. After all, you deserve to see your beginning... before it all ends."

Though Ignitus was clearly not pleased and looked... even a little worried, I couldn't help but beam as he turned and led us deeper into the cave. I could be a pessimist sometimes, but I was never this bad; perhaps Spyro's optimism had finally rubbed off on me, or perhaps I could see what was so clear to all but him. There was always hope.

As our journey really began, with our first steps into the depths of the cave, Sparx began his characteristic complaining. "Am I the only one sane here?" he whined. "He's telling us we're doomed, alright? That's when I go, 'Ah! Maybe we should go back to the forest with the flowers and the fun stuff!'" Everyone ignored him, of course.

_A secret tunnel, _I thought as we went further and further inside until the mouth of the cave was lost in the twisting, turning passages, and we walked in practically pitch black. It was quiet as we plodded on, the only sound the soft echoing of our footsteps and our breathing, so I was left to my thoughts.

I'd surprised myself today. Here I was, trusting an adult I had never even met before; a complete stranger. I had no reason to trust him, to think he could help us, yet I was—quite literally—blindly tripping after him like a lost pup.

Was this the right thing to do? What would Mom and Dad think? It went against what they had taught us... Don't trust strangers, don't trust adults, if one tries to talk to you or get you to follow them then _run. _

But... it was just hard to explain, I felt like I could really trust him. I had a feeling like he was no antagonist, wouldn't do anything to hurt us and only wanted to help us. And besides, what choice did we have? He could be the last dragon we'd ever encounter, and he seemed to be the key to our past. By running, we would be throwing away everything we had fought for.


	8. How to Train Your Dragonfly

We trudged along through a long and winding tunnel, heading for the Temple. I didn't and couldn't count the minutes it took for us to walk through that unending cave; all I knew was that it took a while. I didn't mind the walk very much; it gave me time to think. Ignitus seemed to be another story, though. He walked with a slight limp, that only increased as we continued on.

"Hey, old man, can we speed it up?" Sparx asked. This time I didn't hesitate. I swatted him with my tail and he hit the wall, making a satisfying buzz sound as he flew through the air.

"What he is _trying to say _is,"I said loudly so that the disoriented Sparx could hear,"are you alright? You looks like you're limping." I shot a glare at Sparx.

"Don't worry yourself, young dragon, I will be fine," Ignitus replied simply, continuing forward without another word.  
I nodded, but kept an eye on him. He didn't look fine.

Some time later, we finally reached our destination. We entered the Temple entry room through the secret passage.

The area had fallen into disrepair; some pillars had collapsed and chunks of the wall had fallen out. There were cracks on the ground and small holes in the ceiling set beams of the early morning light dancing. But I could see that the whole place had been carefully made, each detail well thought out and made with painstaking care.

In front of us was a door, circular and large. In the middle was some sort of glowing circle, and it was closed. Ignitus approached it, sighed, and turned around to face us.

"Cynder's forces must have knocked the other statues out of place... heathens," he said, shaking his head.

"What other statues?" Spyro asked, cocking his head.

"On the other side of this door are two statues just like these." Ignitus gestured to two small statues of a dragon.

The dragon depicted looked to be male, carved out of sandstone. He was gazing blankly into the air. I stared at one of the statues and a strange sensation came over me. I felt drawn towards the statue, I wanted to just reach out and touch it, but Ignitus' voice snapped me out of my reverie.

"When all four statues are positioned correctly... the door opens."

"Yeah, good. I was never good at geometry. So what do you want _us _to do?" Sparx asked sarcastically.

"Spyro, Crystal, I need you to get in there and move the statues in place." Ignitus hardly glanced at Sparx.

"Okay, how in the world do I get in there if the door is closed?" I asked flatly. "Can't we just smash it down?"

"No. The doors are sealed with a magical barrier. Physical force cannot open it. There's a small tunnel that animals use to access the caves. Find it, and use it."

"Yeah, animals, okay. You know what? You do that, and I'll wait here," Sparx, said rolling his eyes.

I scoffed and grabbed Sparx midair, holding him around like a candle. I walked around the wall, trying to spot something.

"Let me go, Crystal!" Sparx screamed, trying to break free, but to no avail.

I held Sparx close to the wall, using his glow to help find the entrance. Spyro, with clear disapproval written on his face, followed me in my search for the entrance.

"Aha!" I cried as I spotted it: a mass of vines in a broken section of the wall.. I set Sparx on a rock gently.

"How to Train Your Dragonfly, part one," I said to Spyro, hopping up on the ledge and breaking the vines that lead to the caves. Sparx grumbled something to himself and followed.

Spyro and I, followed by Sparx, made our way through the low-hanging tunnel, only stopping to kill the infrequent Bulb Spider. After a few minutes, we reached a small, overgrown room. Two raised areas were on the far left and on the right, a hole level to the highest ground level had been smashed into the wall. I climbed up onto the first platform easily; it was only a few inches off the ground. I was confronted with a Bulb Spider, so I quickly sliced the delicate middle part of a leg off with my claws and left the spider. It dropped to the ground and began to writhe about madly.

I turned to leave, but the spider cried out and groaned. I felt a spark of pity.

_It's just a spider, _I thought. Nonetheless, I turned and walked back over to it. It looked up at me with six shiny, beseeching eyes and was still. I breathed a powerful burst of flame. There was little left of the spider when I was finished. With a sigh, I continued on my way.

_It's just a spider, _I repeated. _What's the problem?_

There was just something about the way it looked at me, begging for the end. It was suffering...

I shook my head. Spyro had already glided over to the hole. I quickly followed, trying to push the dying Bulb Spider out of my mind. But no matter what I thought, those imploring eyes still remained.

After a quick walk through a short tunnel, we arrived back outside. I glanced at the sky, splayed with light pink, sky blue, and sea green. I had never seen the sea, but I felt _distinctly _that it was that hue.

In the middle of the area, surrounded on all sides by mushrooms, there was a slight depression in the earth, which revealed itself to be a pit upon closer inspection. Tough vines grew over it. I peered through them and saw that below the hole was a room in the Temple. And, lo and behold, in the corner I could just spot the glowing eyes of a statue!

Spyro and I looked at Sparx, mischievous glints in our amethyst-coloured eyes. I knew he'd know what we were thinking.

"Eh, when in doubt, break it right? Go nuts," Sparx said.

I grinned and we jumped into the air, did a flip, and crashed through the vines. I spread my wings so I could gently float down into safety.

I'm never that lucky.

Spyro fell through the hole and crashed into me, sending us falling into the floor of the room below. Annoyed and hurt by the fall, I angrily shoved the confused Spyro off me.

"Spyro!" I yelled, annoyed. "Can't you ever—" My sentence was interrupted as a Bulb Spider that had sneaked up behind me hit me with his leg, knocking me silly—and into the wall.

"CRYSTAL!" Spyro yelled. He ran over to me. I shook my head and motioned for him to focus on the spiders.

Dizzy and reeling, I managed to crawl backwards, towards the corner. The Bulb Spiders were coming in waves now. I just hoped Spyro would be able to handle them on his own, long enough for me to recover.

As I was pushing myself along, I suddenly hit my head on something hard. I looked up and found myself staring into the glowing eyes of one of the dragon statues. I blinked and used the statue to help me to my feet. Although I was still a little disoriented, I managed to spot the pedestal where I presumed it should go. I pushed the heavy dragon statue towards it.

After a few seconds of a little progress and a lot of pain, I stopped to take a break. My shoulders drooped.

_Beaten by a statue? _my mind chided. I growled. No! With a sudden burst of strength, I shoved the statue forward, nearly toppling it in the process. Luckily, as the statue got close to the pedestal, some sort of magical force began to draw it in, making my job easier. I breathed a sigh of relief as the pull took the statue the rest of the way.

By this time, I had been noticed, but I my head didn't hurt so much. I rushed into the swarm of Bulb Spiders with little hesitation, knocking two out of the way, and stopped by Spyro.

"You okay?" Spyro asked, watching the approaching horde of Bulb Spiders.

"I'm fine," I replied. I suddenly got an idea. "Who's ready for How To Train Your Dragonfly, part two?!"I yelled.

"Wha—?" Sparx began, but I grabbed him and held him in front of me, towards the spiders. They did not like this sudden bright light and backed up. I walked closer to them until they finally gave up and retreated back to their dens. I let the indignant Sparx go.

Together, Spyro and I had little trouble pushing the second statue in. The door opened, revealing Ignitus and allowing light to spill in to the small room.

"Any trouble?" he asked.

"A little insect trouble... nothing we couldn't handle." Spyro said quickly.

Insect...? Those were arachnids... Sparx. I resisted the urge to snicker at this revelation.

"_Little _insects, my tail section," Sparx muttered, obviously not getting the joke.

Ignitus approached the door on the other side of the room. This one was closed as well... I sensed another statue trek.

"The past is prelude, tomorrow a dim promise. Allow us entrance, do not reject us," Ignitus murmured.

"Is he making that up?" Sparx wondered aloud.

"It should open for us," Ignitus said, ignoring Sparx as always. (I have to say I admired that. _Nobody _could ignore Sparx.) "There is... a disturbance. It seems my fears have been realized. They've desecrated the interior as well. Guess we'll have to open it the old-fashioned way. Make your way through the connecting rooms, restoring every statue you can find."

"Hey, you know what, let's don't and say we didn't. Why don't you do it?" Sparx demanded, crossing his arms.

"You want my help? Very well. Hop up." Ignitus walked over to a ledge we needed to get to, too high for us to jump up to.

"Alright... the old guy's coming to life," Sparx said.

Spyro and I carefully jumped on his back and hopped on the ledge. We really hoped that didn't hurt. I peered over the edge at Ignitus.

"Careful. Cynder's forces are surely on their way," he said.

"Oh, goodie," was Sparx's sarcastic remark. He rolled his eyes.

I turned and walked forward. The tunnel we entered was long and winding. The only light to guide us was Sparx. I noticed the web of a giant spider—not a Bulb Spider, as they didn't weave webs—and looked around warily.

I squinted as I saw that something was lighting up the tunnel with a soft blue glow. I suddenly felt as if I had been put into a trance. Mesmerized, Spyro and I walked towards the blue object. It was a blue crystal, though I am not sure of what kind. All I knew was that it was dazzling and I could feel magic radiating off it. I had never been introduced to the arcane before, but I knew it existed, and this glowing crystal was it. It was the embodiment of magic into something solid and real.

Without even thinking, Spyro and I hit the crystal. It broke into shattered pieces before fading completely. Light filtered out of the crystal and sped towards us. I was filled with an odd, bubbly feeling, followed by a surge of power.

"Hey, you two, what was that about?!" Sparx exclaimed, staring at us.

"I don't know. I just felt like I had to hit it... and when I did...t he power of a thousand suns coursed through my body," Spyro said poetically, sounding excited.

Sparx blinked and stared at him for several seconds. "...Riiight. Okay. Well, you know what? You should really get more sleep. Y'know, I'm gonna stop bugging you. You really need to get eight hours."

I laughed and shook my head. "Forget it, Sparx. Let's go."

So on our merry way we went, until I heard the cry of a Leader and the _bang, bang, bang _of a weapon hitting a shield.

Uh oh.

I ran further down the tunnel, ready to meet the band of Soldiers. I entered a room, lit only by a hole in the ceiling. In the middle was a statue knocked out of its pedestal... and way more Soldiers than I anticipated surrounded it.

"Um... How to Train Your Dragonfly, part three?" I asked Spyro.

Sparx tried to run, but I grabbed him and threw him at the Soldiers. Sparx, in an amazing attempt to be helpful (or perhaps in an attempt to keep me from killing him later), flew in circles around them, distracting their vision. Spyro and I attacked them while they were off-guard and easily killed them with our fire breath.

"Good little firefly," I said to Sparx. He glared at me and I couldn't hold back a laugh.

So, Spyro and I pushed in the statue with relative ease and were on our way. We walked into the next room, which was even darker than the first. Some Bulb Spiders, that had been sleeping on the ceiling, crawled down the wall. They were as easily dispatched as ever.

A final statue was here, which I pushed onto the pedestal. In the corner was a cluster of those crystals, all bright red. I was again drawn towards them, but instead of destroying them this time, I placed a paw on one and absorbed it that way.

There was no surge of power, but something amazing happened. In the fight with the creatures, the Leader had cut me with his sword. I had dodged back just in time, so it wasn't anything serious; not long, hardly deep. But the cut... when I absorbed the magic, the cut scabbed over in a second, before fading away completely, leaving flawless purple scales.

I looked at Spyro incredulously, then back to the crystal, now a drained white. I shook my head and resolved to ask Ignitus about it. He would probably know. I allowed the thought to drift from my mind as I followed Spyro and Sparx onwards through the tunnel.

Eventually, we encountered a door, except there was no apparent way to open it. I tapped it and glanced at Spyro, who had walked up behind me. I noticed the fire emblem on it the second Spyro breathed a burst of flames. The door spun around, taking us back into the main room where Ignitus was. Spyro and I turned around.

"That's quite an entrance, young dragons. There may be hope for us yet," Ignitus said, walking through the now open door. Spyro, Sparx, and I glided down and followed him. We were almost there... I just knew it.

~~...~~

I stared at the blue gem in front of me, glowing enchantingly. I really wanted to hit it, but I controlled myself.

_Crystal, Crystal, _the gem whispered, enticing me. I just about exploded where I stood.

"What are these things?" Spyro and I asked together.

"These are Spirit Gems... a gift from the ancestors," Ignitus replied.

"What kind of gift?" Spyro spoke this time.

"A gift that speaks across generations. A gift that empowers you with the spirit of the past, strengthening you with the wisdom of the ages!"

"I feel more powerful already!" I laughed.

Spyro and I broke the Spirit Gems, absorbing their energy. It rippled through me, empowering me, and I felt ready to take on the world. Bring Soldiers! Bring Leaders! Bring hordes of frogweeds, Growths, Bulb Spiders! I'd take them all on!

I had no way to know that in the future, I just might be presented with that option.


	9. Taking the World by Storm

The room we entered was large and rather bare. The ceiling was all but gone, large pillars holding up naught but air. The bleak room dampened my hopes, and not even the rising sun's cheerful light could dry them.

I heard a laugh that likely came from a Leader or Soldier. I couldn't pinpoint what direction it had come from, but it seemed far away.

"Do you hear that?" Ignitus asked hoarsely. Spyro and I looked up quizzically.

"What is it?" Spyro asked.

"Exactly what I feared..." Ignitus paused, before a sad look took over his features. "Look, Spyro, Crystal...perhaps we should turn back."

"What? After coming this far?" Spyro asked.

"If this door is closed," he motioned towards a door a few feet away from us, "it means intruders are behind it. It's the Temple's way of protecting itself."

"Uh, yeah, doesn't work too well, does it?" Sparx asked sarcastically, crossing his arms. For once, I agreed with him.

"What are you saying, Ignitus?" Spyro asked.

"What I'm saying is the only way the door will open—"

"DON'T SAY IT!" Sparx interjected.

"—is if the intruders are kicked out," Spyro finished.

"Wonder of wonders," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Didn't I just say don't say it?" Sparx muttered.

So, wondering how we were to get in, the party set off in search of an entrance. Unfortunately, animal tunnels were out of the question; there didn't seem to be any in the area.

I walked along the wall, trying to find irregularities or holes. As I was walking along a wall, I tripped on a stray stone and fell into it. Normally, this wouldn't have been important, but when I hit the wall, there was an echo. I drummed my claws on the wall, and sure enough, it was hollow inside.

"Hey, guys, the wall over here is hollow," I called. "But how do we get in?"

"Why don't we try pushing this pillar?" Spyro inquired. The pillar he was referring to looked as if it was about to collapse. If it could hit the other pillars, which in turn could hit the wall, it would break.

"Good idea," I said simply, walking over. "You may have the honour," I said with a mock bow.

Spyro rolled his eyes and pushed on the pillar. It took all of his body weight, but after a moment, the pillar fell. It crashed into another pillar, which crashed into another one, which crashed into the wall and revealed yet another tunnel. I just barely noticed the tail of a shrieking Soldier as it disappeared around a corner. I smirked.

Spyro, Sparx, and I headed through the hole that had been made. I only stopped to break a few Spirit Gems along the way. As we were running along, we approached an incline that led to a room. There was a leader on the top, and when he noticed us, he called out to his platoon. The twenty-odd Soldiers streamed down the hill.

Dropping into a fighting stance, I leapt forward, intending to tackle a Soldier. Unfortunately, my attack was intercepted as one of the smelly creatures jumped into the air and hit my side. We both skidded along, but I was on my feet in an instant. One smooth motion and the offending Soldier's throat was cut, killing him immediately.

I whipped around and breathed a torrent of flames, killing one and injuring three others. Spyro finished them off, and then there was only the Leader left to deal with.

We ran up the hill, dodging dynamite. A blast just licked me, but I was not hindered. Spyro and I both crossed over to either side of the Leader and breathed fire at the same time. The smell of burning flesh and fur filled the air, and the Leader was dead before we stopped.

Just as I thought we were done, I heard a cry and two Soldiers crashed through some brittle vines on the wall, aiming to hit us. One missed us completely, lost his footing, and slammed into the wall. The other had more luck and landed just behind us.

As we were fighting it, a slash from my claws caused blood to spray all over. Part of 'all over' was my forehead. I finished off the Soldier easily enough.

"Spyro. Is it me, or is this getting easier? ...Yuck!" I wiped a paw over my forehead but nothing came off. "Something tells me this stains..."

Despite my minor dilemma, I gladly continued on. I was ready to finish up and finally see the Temple, not just the side passages!

Spyro and I skidded to a stop as we ran through the next tunnel. We stared at the creature in front of us with big eyes. We had just met our first Commander.

The Commander was the biggest living thing I had ever seen, standing three to five heads taller than me. This creature had grey-coloured fur, and was wearing thick leather armor. It was holding a staff that had a red Spirit Gem on the end of it. I wondered why it was there. My question was soon answered.

I stood there blindly, watching the incoming shockwave and not making any move to avoid it. When it hit me, I felt a great pain surge through my body. I cried out and stepped back, inadvertently dodging an attack from the Commander. Recovering quickly, I retaliated with a burst of fire and the fight was on.

Even with my and Spyro's attacks combined, the Commander took forever to take down. Shockwaves either paralyzed me or sent surges of pain through my body so that I was locked in place. Being hit with the staff or a sword wasn't pleasant either. Nobody escaped unharmed, but the Commander didn't escape alive.

"Okay... not getting easier," I said, shaking my head.

As I walked past the limp corpse of the Commander, I stopped and glanced at the staff. I walked over and pulled the little Spirit Gem off, resisting the urge to absorb it then and there. Instead, I placed it in my bag to use later. Remember? The one I brought with me that had food in it. That bag.

I examined the bag. It was a brown and small, but in perfect condition. I wondered why the previous owner of the treehouse had left it behind, but no matter, really. They had, and now I was putting it to good use.

We soon came to the edge of the passageway, looking down over a large room below. I peered over edge. There was a Leader and a handful of Soldiers down there, and they were all asleep. In the middle of the slumbering group was a large keg of dynamites, the fuse trailing on until it was far from the group.

What idiots.

I grinned at Spyro, and he grinned back. We were both thinking the same thing. Silent as the night, we glided down to the room below and sneaked over to the fuse. Spyro bowed, imitating me. I rolled my eyes and ignited the fuse. The little fire trailed along until it reached the keg and disappeared inside. Nothing happened.

"Aw, man, it's a du—" I was interrupted by the explosion and four screams. When the smoke cleared, all you could see was, Spyro, Sparx, and I laughing hard enough to shake the Temple. Nobody knew what was just so funny about it, but...

Still laughing to myself, I walked over to the tunnel that led to the next room. Spyro and Sparx weren't far behind. Noticing a hole in the wall, I saw that it was a short jump down to the hole Spyro and I had made. We jumped down and walked back into the room where Ignitus was and over to him. Before any of us could speak, a swarm of Soldiers jumped out of the hole Spyro and I had made with the pillars and surrounded us.

One Commander didn't follow the crowd and stood menacingly in the hole. The shadows that danced on him made him look even more frightening and big than he really was. The look on my face must have been priceless.

Ignitus jumped in front of us defensively. I glared at the Soldiers from behind him, daring them to come near us. With Ignitus, we could defeat all of these Soldiers, easy!

"Well, Ignitus, we nabbed your Guardian buddies, but you managed to escape our clutches... until now," the Commander growled, smirking. He held the Spirit Gem staff in front of him, waiting to give the attack signal.

"Stand back, young dragons," Ignitus said, pushing us back with his wing, "and let me show you what a dragon trained in the ancient ways can do."

Spyro and I backed off into a corner and waited to see what would happen. It didn't take long, as the Commander held the staff out straight and this was the signal for the Soldiers to all rush forward.

Ignitus knocked a Soldier away with his tail, sending it flying to the other side of the room. It collided with another Soldier. The Commander came and tried to attack Ignitus, but could only see orange at Ignitus whacked him square in the face with a paw.

"Whoa, the big guys got some _moves_!" Sparx exclaimed.

I could only nod my head in agreement and stare in astonishment at Ignitus. If me or Spyro had had to fight that many creatures alone... well, we would be toast.

The ran back and tried to attack Ignitus, but was sent flying high in the air with a thrust of Ignitus' horns. Ignitus leaned down and before I could comprehend what he was doing, a ring of fire surrounded him, and expanded, killing all the Soldiers with... seventh degree burns or something! Ignitus began panting, clearly drained. We ran over to him.

"Are you okay, Ignitus?" Spyro asked.

"Yes... As I get older it takes longer to recover," he answered, straightening and leading us towards the door.

"You were incredible, Ignitus! Can you show me how to do that?" Spyro asked.

"Me, too! That was awesome!" I exclaimed.

"Patience, young dragons. Soon enough you will learn all I have to teach. But now... you must fight."

As if on cue, the door opened, revealing a small, bare hallway with two red Spirit gems. On the other side was a door.

Spyro and I ran forward. I didn't know much at the time, but I did know one thing; we were going to take the world by storm. And nothing was going to stop us.


	10. The Way It Was Before

Spyro and I ran into the small room. The door on the other side opened, the one nearest to us closing at the same time. A Leader and his Soldier goons walked through the now-open door. Spyro flamed the Soldiers, taking them by surprise, but I took on the Leader.

I rammed into him then jumped away from a swing of his sword, retaliating with a blast of fire. But, to my shock, the breath _fizzled out _after a moment. The fire trickled down to a little smoke, and I couldn't will anything out.

While I was distracted, the Leader came near and I was not quick enough to dodge his foot. I went flying through the air. Luckily, I managed to land on my feet, saving me from harm, and slid the rest of the way into the wall.

Spyro, who had already dispatched the Soldiers, finished the Leader of for me. I gave a nod of thanks and walked forward.

As I was walking, I glanced at a puddle that had formed in the corner. I stopped and stared at my distorted reflection, and didn't recognize it. It was like, in the course of a few hours, I had morphed into somebody else. The worst part was that I knew it was coming. When I set out, I just somehow knew that it would happen. That I would change... maybe even forever.

_Will life go back to the way it was? _I thought, but shook it off immediately. _Life can't just change like that; it won't be long now before I go back home and everything will be the same as it was before. ...Won't it?_

For the first time since I set out on this adventure, I felt unmistakable doubt. I tried to look ahead, to imagine what the future would be like, but I only hit a blank. I sighed, deciding I would think about it later, and took some water from the puddle to clean the sticky red blood off of my face, but no amount of scrubbing could wash the red-purple stain off.

"Aw man! It _does _stain!" I complained to myself.

Ignitus walked past me. I turned and followed him and Spyro and we walked into the next room. I barely had time to look around before Ignitus spoke.

"If Cynder's forces were here, there will surely be more in the Temple," he said solemnly.

"Oh, goodie!" was Sparx's exclamation. He waved his arms around to show his unhappiness with the whole affair.

"They won't be there for long," Spyro and I said together, walking confidently towards the door.

Sparx flew up to Ignitus, meeting him eye-to-eye. "Wonderful, now they're getting cocky."

As I was heading towards the door, I noticed a green Spirit Gem. Curious, as I hadn't seen that colour yet, I walked over to it and place a paw on it, absorbing the magic.

There is really no words to describe the feeling I experienced, so I shall use a metaphor. Inside of me, there was a well. It was like any other well, except inside it was purple, liquidated magic rather than water. Breathing fire was like pulling up the magic water from the well and drinking it all, and the well would eventually run out. Magic would slowly seep back into the well. But absorbing that crystal was comparable to suddenly being struck by a magic thunderstorm, and all the purple water that fell to the ground was immediately absorbed into the well.

The refill of my magical reserves was so sudden that the paw touching the crystal tingled and I became slightly dizzy. Apparently, things like that seemed to happen to any dragon absorbing Spirit Gems for the first time.

Still a little star-eyed, I headed into the next room. The first thing I saw was a pool. The small, circular pool contained green liquid that swirled around and around endlessly.

I don't know what it was about the room, but it felt so... so... it just felt so! There's no words to describe it. Exciting, exhilarating, enchanting, enthralling, as Volteer would and did say, but more about him later.

I grinned at Sparx and walked around the pool until I reached the middle. I looked into the pool, then at at Spyro who stood beside me, back to the pool, then at Spyro again, blinking rapidly the whole time.

Looking into the pool gave me a strange feeling. It was a bit like being dizzy, but I had been dizzy many times the past day and night, so I knew that it didn't quite fit the description. It was something _above _dizziness, a feeling that had no name. I tore my eyes from the water and looked around.

This room was definitely in the best condition. It seemed to be untouched, unlike the rest of the Temple, that had either been destroyed or fallen into disrepair. I examined the walls. There were pictures of dragons and other species on it, along with words in the alphabet that I could read, and some other language that I couldn't. It seemed like the patterns and words on the wall were carved in millenia ago, yet they were in perfect condition.

I heard steps behind me. I turned and looked at Ignitus as he walked past, towards yet another door. As he passed us, his tail "accidentally" hit Sparx, sending him flying. Spyro gasped and I snickered. He would be alright, and besides... it was kind of amusing.

Once Sparx had recovered, him, Spyro, and I followed Ignitus. The door opened at our approach, sliding smoothly into the wall.

"Ahh... Home... sweet home," Ignitus said, gazing forward. I followed his gaze and nearly gasped at what I saw.

In the middle of the room was a statue, but it wasn't just a statue. It was bigger than any tree, any mushroom, anything I had ever seen! It looked as if it took years to make. Upon closer inspection, I realized it depicted the same dragon that made up the rest of the statues in the Temple, but in a different position.

Like the other statues, his eyes glowed yellow, but this great central statue's eyes flashed slowly instead of one steady glow. The dragon looked down upon us in a condescending manner. He was sitting on a pedestal, his wings out but curled forward. The statue was so detailed that I could almost see the dragon breathe. Finally, to top it off, a skylight made up the ceiling and light filtered through it, spilling onto the ground and dancing on the statue.

Spyro and I looked at Ignitus expectantly. He motioned forward with his head, and it was as if an invisible force that had been tethering us to the spot faded away. Spyro and I exploded into the room. Ignitus smiled behind us, but neither of us saw it.

Spyro and I split up when we reached the statue, each taking a different side. Sparx went with Spyro. As soon as I stepped foot onto the left side of the statue, I was tackled by a Soldier. I was sent rolling into the wall, but all it took to clear my surprise was a shake of my head. I was my feet in a second, returning the tackle. I made short work of the rest of the enemies and the room was cleared in no time.

Spyro and I walked over to the doorway on the other side, and footsteps a few moments later signified that Ignitus was coming. While we waited, I wondered what could possibly be behind this door. I had seen so many already! The Temple seemed to be endless.

The door opened on Ignitus' approach. To my concealed relief, it led outside, onto a balcony. There was a slight hill leading to a large leveled area. On all sides was a stone wall to prevent somebody from falling over the edge. As soon as you exited the door, and right before you entered onto the leveled area, there was an arch.

Sparx swirled around Ignitus before flying ahead of us, but stopped right in the middle of his journey forward.

"We're not in Kansas anymore," Sparx said quietly.

That phrase had no meaning to us; nobody was really sure what a Kansas was. But it was generally used to state you were in an unfamiliar place. Raising an eyebrow, I walked over to the wall to see what the big deal was.

I widened my eyes at what I saw. Ruined buildings dotted the landscape. Quite near the Temple there was a tower that rose high above the mushrooms, but half of it had been sheared off. It was as if someone had taken a giant axe and sliced it clean in half. Wisps of smoke curled up above one part of the swamp, and upon closer inspection I saw that a patch of land had been completely destroyed. The great mushrooms that had not fallen had been charred black.

Finally, Spyro broke the silence. "What happened here?"

"This is what Cynder has done. Put all the islands under her iron rule," Ignitus said. His words were nearly emotionless, but I could detect the twinge of sorrow.

"I wanted to see where we came from... but we didn't know it was going to be like this," Spyro said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, no offense, but this place is a bit of a dump," Sparx said.

"Spyro, Crystal, this was once our home. Together we can make it our home once again. Reclaim what rightfully ours," Ignitus said, ignoring Sparx yet again.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean that my time for heroics is past. But with your help, we might be able to beat Cynder."

"I-I can't, Ignitus. I _just _learned what I am," Spyro said.

"He's right. It's just not possible. Cynder is an adult with endless power... we're just kids. We can't." I gave in. Spyro was so optimistic it was sometimes annoying, so if he believed that we couldn't...

"You can, Spyro and Crystal, you can!" Ignitus said, coming eye-level to us. "You are a purple dragon, a very special creature. You have given me hope again. Now it's time to give hope to all of them." Ignitus straightened and looked around at the Swamp.

I gazed back out into the distance, where the smoldering buildings had been. Who had lived there? Who had died there? Could we save others from the same fate?

Ignitus was right. If nothing else, we had to try.

"I'm not sure what help we can be, Ignitus, but... we'll try," Spyro said.

"We'll try," we said together, more force in our voice.

"Good. That's all I can ask. Now come with me. I have something for you."

~~...~~

"The style you used earlier was crude, archaic, and obvious... but it got the job done. Not bad, considering you haven't even learned what it means to be a dragon yet," Ignitus said.

We were back in the statue-room now. I stared up at the statue, intrigued, glancing back at Ignitus every few seconds to show that I was listening.

"Thanks... I think..." Spyro said, saying the last part to himself. I just blinked.

"...But if you're going to have a chance against Cynder, you're going to need to learn a lot more." Ignitus continued.

"Oh, good. School," Sparx muttered.

"Unlike any school you've ever known, young friend," Ignitus said sternly. Sparx flew back and held

his hands in the air in defense. Ignitus turned back to us. "Now... it's time to unleash the true dragon within you."

I was ready for whatever was coming. I waited for instructions.

"Each of the Guardians is master of an element. As you may have surmised, I am master of fire," Ignitus said as the statue in the middle of the room rumbled down into the floor. "Pay attention, and you may be someday too. Let us begin."

Master of fire? That was a nice thought. The element I harnessed already was amazing, but just the thought of it getting _better..._

"You seemed to have learned to breathe fire on your own. That's very impressive... and unusual. But let's see if you can have control over it. These dummies willattack you, so be on your guard. I doubt I'll have to, but if you start to get overpowered, I can make them recede. Now, attack them with your fire breath."

I circled the dummies. They resembled Soldiers, but were stuffed with straw. They moved as if controlled by magic, attacking us with paw-swipes. It was easy to burn them, considering one puff of flame set them on fire.

"Very impressive, young dragons," Ignitus said when we were done. "This time, see if you can chase them down with your fire breath. You have two minutes."

I hated this exercise.

Spyro and I, used to the slowing mud of the swamp, had no idea we could run so fast, and kept tripping over the dummies, slamming into walls, and sometimes slamming into each other. Of course, Spyro was just a natural klutz and always has been (I'd experienced that firsthand...), but I was usually more 'graceful', for lack of a better description, than I was being now.

Sparx was in the corner, in hysterics. I had just made dominoes out of the dummies and Spyro.

"Ow," said Spyro flatly, as the dummies disappeared.

After seven tries, we finally got used to it and caught the dummies easily. "Practice makes perfect, after all," Ignitus said once all the dummies were gone. "Now, you must learn there is a time and a place for everything. Just knock this stationary dummy into the air."

This exercise was easy. One horn jab each and the dummy was send flailing into the air.

"Well done. But your training is just getting started," was the reassuring praise this time. "Knocking enemies in the air allows many opportunities for continued attacks. While in the air, your wings give you the advantage. Do as you did last time, but use your wings to give you lift and hit the dummies repeatedly."

Spyro and I ran for the dummies. Midair attack was actually easier than I thought it would be. Using my wings as a lift, I could stay in the air long enough to attack the dummies a few times.

"Wow! I actually won! Awesome!" Spyro exclaimed.

"I had no... idea... I could do that!" I panted with excitement.

"Let's see the power you can provide with your abilities. Horn-diving enemies can give you an immense advantage in battle."

Five dummies appeared that we had to horn dive. Spyro started on the left, and I did the right, and we met in the middle.

"Wait 'til I tell the folks about this!" Spyro said with a grin.

_Maybe this fighting stuff isn't so bad after all. _I thought. It was certainly very interesting, all the strategies and planning... and maybe even a little fun!

There were many more rounds, consisting of basic and complicated melee attack strategies. Although I loved fighting with melee, I wanted to learn more about fire. My wish was granted, though it took about forty more minutes.

"Spyro, Crystal, you have taken large strides in your abilities to harness the element of fire. But now I will teach you to manipulate it. Try to control your fire into a short, concentrated burst. The results can be... explosive."

"I like where you're going with that!" I exclaimed with a laugh.

A wall of fire appeared in the middle of the ring, behind it three dummies. I concentrated and managed to make my first fireball. Exploding out of my mouth, it spiraled out of control and missed the dummy by a mile. Trying again, I managed to control it this time, and it hit one of the stationary dummies. Spyro did the same as I did with ease. Together, we finished off the dummies, only missing once more each.

"Ha! I knew you had it in you!" Ignitus exclaimed. "Now, let's mix it up!"

The wall of fire was back, except this time the dummies were moving and dodged our attacks. It took us a while to aim correctly, but finally, we managed to clear this room of dummies. We had now reached the final round.

"So far, so good. Now for the real challenge. You have demonstrated the ability to control and manipulate fire. Now, you must let the fire flow. Feel it in your veins, and when the time is right... release it!" Ignitus explained. I was sure exactly how to do that, but I suppose if the power was there, it would come on its own.

Wave after wave of small dummies came. They were easily fought off and killed. After a few minutes of this, Leader-sized dummies appeared. I felt a surge of power. I looked at Spyro, and he nodded.

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do, but I closed my eyes, and slowly felt the power of fire flow through me, letting it consume me. There was nothing else but fire, nothing in the world but their flickering flames. I concentrated.

Fire... I had always viewed it as a tool of destruction, something to avoid, something to fear. I had viewed the dancing flames as monsters just waiting to gobble me up. Those Soldiers had been _killed _by the fire I had called into being. Fire destroyed, consumed, and so I feared it.

But the past few days had made me realize something. Fire wasn't monstrous, just misunderstood. A wild spirit that could never ever be tamed, could not be manipulated. You could use or misuse fire, but it did want it wanted to and truly harnessing it was impossible.

We started to lift up off the ground as if some magical force pulled us there. I opened my eyes and saw a small spiral of fire forming around us. A blinding light filled my vision, and the beam of fire expanded, all of the dummies burning under its rage. I landed on the ground with a thump, feeling weaker but not completely drained.

"You might have a chance against Cynder yet," Ignitus said. His voice was faraway, back to distant memories of a life before Cynder.

* * *

**A/N:**

**A quote is referenced in this chapter. Credit for Crystal's response to Ignitus telling her about fireballs in training goes to EeveeVSHoOh. She spoke the line in her A New Beginning Let's Play on YouTube and I liked it so much that I included it here.**


	11. First Flight

Spyro, Sparx and I followed Ignitus as he led us back into the pool room. My strength was just beginning to return at that point, and I noticed that I suddenly felt different. Like I had a new sort of strength that wasn't exactly physical. I sat down by the edge of the pool and curled my tail around my legs while Ignitus turned his gaze to the pool, leaning over and looking into it.

Curious to see what he was watching with such concentration, I stared into the murky green depths, but I saw nothing. Nothing but still water.

Sparx flew over to the pool and starting dancing around in it, possibly trying to get Ignitus' attention. I'm not completely sure what was going through his head, actually. Sparx flew in front of Ignitus' eyes, startling him. He straightened up.

"So what's with the pool, big guy?" Sparx asked.

"If you _must _know," Ignitus said, rolling his eyes, "certain dragons have the abilities to see visions. The thoughts, hopes, and dreams of others."

My head snapped up. What did he know? Did he know anything about _me__?_I mean, thoughts, hopes, and dreams... that really is rather invasive. Not that I thought, hoped, or dreamed of anything interesting.

"...And to see what's happening in places far, far away. I am one such dragon, and in this pool, the visions come forth."

I looked at the pool, but all I saw was little sparkly magic things coming out of it and dancing on air before fading away. Guess I wasn't one of those dragons.

"Oh, really, is that so? Okay, what am I thinking now?" Sparx asked.

Ignitus gave me and Spyro a cynical look. I think he was trying to ask us how we put up with him.

"What am I thinking now?"

Ignitus looked confused. I think he tried to look into Sparx's mind and became petrified at what he saw.

"Okay, now. Now! Now, now, now, now, now!"

Maybe Ignitus just got a headache. I shot a glare at Sparx, but it wasn't needed, for Ignitus spoke.

"I'm afraid it's not that easy, young Sparx. It takes time. Reflection. Patience," Ignitus said.

_It took you ten seconds just now, _I thought to myself. I rebuked myself for the thought. What if he heard it later?

"What I do see in the Pool of Visions is that Volteer, another Guardian, is being held on Dante's Freezer. Spyro, Crystal, while I look for details on the others, I need you to venture there and find out what you can." Ignitus paused. "Remember, just look around. If you encounter Cynder, run. You aren't ready to face her yet."

"Okay, so when people are trying to kill me, run. Got it," Sparx butted in.

"But... Ignitus? How do we _get _there?" Spyro asked.

"Yeah..." I had found a map hidden under a board in the treehouse a few months prior (though I only glanced at it once and forgot about it), and I called it to memory. "Isn't that place an island? What are we supposed to do, swim?" I laughed nervously. He wasn't going to make us swim, right?

"I'm glad you asked," Ignitus said, smiling.

"Why is he smiling? I don't like it," Sparx said, shaking his head and backing away.

~~...~~

"Let me get this straight. You're saying that—" Spyro began.

"We can fly?" I finished.

Ignitus only smiled and winked.

"Maybe you've been hanging in those caves a little too long, old man. Spyro and Crystal can't fly, we all know that," Sparx stated, talking slowly.

"Yeah, a bit of fresh air might do you good. We've never flown before." Spyro shook his head.

"It is you who will be getting fresh air, Spyro. Now close your eyes, take a deep breath, and empty your mind..." Ignitus said.

With a skeptical sigh, I complied. The breathing and closing my eyes was easy, but emptying your mind wasn't even close to that. Every time I tried, thoughts jumped back in. I kept resolutely shoving them back, bur they still played at the back of my mind.

~~...~~

"Yes... yes, that's it. Now feel the power of your ancestors coursing through your body. In times of crisis, they will come to you and teach you... unlocking powers you never knew you had," Ignitus said.

We were out on the balcony now, considering flying would be easier when there wasn't a ceiling.

"Boy, this I gotta see," Sparx muttered, but I blocked him out.

I focused on not focusing on focusing. That sounds confusing, but once I cleared my mind and got the hang of it, it was easy. Emptying my mind was a bit like slipping into sleep, except I was still somewhat aware of my surroundings. You were receding into yourself.

"Just forget everything you thought you knew. Forget yourself! For only by forgetting, you will remember what your ancient blood already knows," Ignitus continued. His voice echoed in my mind.

Crystal began to fade away into the mist. There was no Crystal, only blank darkness. I could see nothing, hear nothing, and my memories were gone, but I felt comforted.

Spyro and I had unknowingly climbed to our feet, still in our trance. Our wings started to slowly, automatically flap.

"You can fly..."

At that remark, my eyes flew open and Crystal was back again. Spyro and I snapped back to reality and found that we weren't on the ground anymore. I struggled to find the floor that wasn't there, pawing the air quickly, then slowly until I let my forelegs drop.

I looked at an astonished Spyro, at a smiling Ignitus, at a dumbfounded Sparx. I grinned, then laughed, unable to hold in the feeling.

I didn't wait a second more. I shot off into the air like an arrow, loving the rush of air. My stomach was doing flips, but I didn't care.

At first I floundered through the air, struggling to move in a straight line, but after a few minutes my movements smoothed out. Laughing, I did a few aerial flips and burst through a cloud. I didn't need any more practice; I was ready to go. Followed by Spyro and Sparx, I sped off for Dante's Freezer.

~~...~~

My eyes were tightly closed. Once we had hit the clouds, that's the way they had been. It wasn't like like I would hit anything.

Now that we were far away from the Temple, I slowly began to open my eyes. Before me there was nothing but the brilliant blue sky, filled with clouds. Some were a pretty pale gold, and others were white and puffy.

I glanced at Spyro, whose pupils were constricted in half fear and half exhilaration. I looked down below me. I couldn't even see the ocean through the thick wall of cloud. The feeling I was getting... was tickling and scary and exciting all at the same time.

"Are you kidding?! They're flying!" Sparx yelled, breaking the silence. He flew over to Spyro and yelled into his ear, "Welcome to the club, buddy!"

"Would that be the annoying pest club?"Spyro asked, grinning.

"No, smart aleck, the flying club," Sparx said flatly. I could hardly hear him through the whistling wind.

"Hey! You forgot to welcome me into the annoying pest club!" I yelled.

"Yeah, Crystal, that's the perfect club for you," Spyro remarked. I flew into him roughly, setting him off balance, but I couldn't wipe the grin off his face.

"Yeah! I could get used to this!" he said.

No more was spoken, so we charged down, bursting through a cloud. I loved flying through them. Suddenly, as if directed by an unseen force, down we went. I got my first glimpse of the ocean. How beautiful it was! The sparkling blue-green waves were gentle at the moment, and the water looked flawless. I wanted to dive down into it, but I curbed that thought. The ocean could be as ruthless as it was beautiful... the waves could drag me down, I could be unable to get out of the water and into the air. It was better to just watch it.

So, I contented myself with skimming a paw on the surface and laughing again. I was just full of laughs that day, which was good... Soon, there wouldn't be many more chances for laughter.

Spyro, Sparx, and I flew for about ten minutes before I could make out a few small islands approaching fast on the horizon. The land had tall mountains on them, and nearly no beach. They seemed to be deserted. As we flew for them a weird creature popped out of the ocean. I believe it was called a Leviathan, the giant sea turtle. Its great green shell, shiny with glistening water, glinted in the sunlight and its yellow head rose above the water. It was singing, like a whale, as it showed us the way. As soon as we neared the cluster of islands, it disappeared into the water.

But my eyes were not on the Leviathan. Instead, they were focused on something that was coming towards us, and fast.

"Uh... Spyro, those aren't birds..." I stared before me, squinting, and only realized what it was when it was about to hit me.

Spyro grabbed my arm and pulled me into a barrel roll as a flaming Solider came cannonballing for me, shot out of... well, a cannon.

"Those are! Look out!" Spyro yelled as a large creature, bird-like in nature, came flying towards us at high speed.

This creature, which came to be known to us as a Dreadwing, was light blue with purple wing membrane. Its wings were attached to its legs, oddly, and its back was a tan color. It had curved horns and a Soldier was sitting on its back, steering it.

I shot a fireball at the Dreadwing, dodging its swipes. When it collided, the Dreadwing released a demonic screech that made me clutch my head in pain. It went down, screaming its defeat all the way. Even after it had hit the water and fell silent, my ears continued to ring.

And on we went, dodging Soldiers and Dreadwings, trying not to think about how much hitting the water would hurt if they collided with us. We managed to make it past the islands without any serious injury. But three _more _islands were on the horizon!

Gulp.

Before we could even reach them, though, we spotted a pirate ship. Yes, for some unexplainable reason, the Soldiers had hijacked a pirate ship and were now sailing it towards Dante's Freezer. Unfortunately, the pirate ship had the same cannons that were on the mountains. Spyro and I had to dodge even more flaming Soldiers, coming from both the islands and the ship.

"Who the heck would volunteer for that?!" I screamed as I barely dodged a Soldier and got singed by the flames.

Somehow we got past the islands without getting hit by the flaming Soldier onslaught, but lo and behold, another pirate ship was near. This one was even bigger than the last and had even more Soldier-cannons.

Before I could react, a cannon from the ship went off and I was hit right in the face with a Soldier before being sent plummeting into the water. I groaned and simply floated there while the stinging on my back subsided. That hurt way more than I thought it would.

The Soldier beside me splashed about madly, obviously unable to swim. I couldn't move without waves of pain rushing through my body, so there was no way I could help him. After about a minute, he stopped flailing about and sunk into the abyss.

"Are you alright, Crystal?" Spyro yelled, circling above me.

"I'm fine!" I yelled back. "Keep going!"

I managed to flip myself over and began gingerly paddling towards the ship nearby. I was at the mercy of the waves now, and I was never a strong swimmer... or a swimmer at all. Luckily, the ocean was in my favour, and pushed me closer to the ship rather than away—or under.

Once I reached the pirate ship, I grabbed the splintery wood and began to climb. One piece of wood after the other, I came closer to the top. I was already tired, but I was almost there...

Crack! A piece of wood broke. I wildly tried to grab another, but I was already falling. With a splash, I hit the water again.

_At least it doesn't hurt as much as last time. Ow. _I thought. I gazed up at the climb I had before me and groaned.

Five minutes later, a purple paw could be seen from the deck as it grabbed on to the edge of the ship. Another arm appeared, and the claws on its paw dug into the wood's inequalities. A moment later, my head popped over the edge and, panting, I pulled myself onto the deck.

Water streamed off me in riv'lets and I was freezing cold, but that was my least concern. Where were the Soldiers? When I last got a glimpse of the deck, the whole place had been bustling with life. Now it was as if everybody had jumped overboard. Well, at least I had the ship to myself. I stood up and shook myself off before walking forward and scanning the skies. Spyro and Sparx weren't in sight.

"They must have gone ahead," I said to myself, sliding my bag off my shoulder. Good thing it was apparently waterproof!

I turned around and found myself standing in front of a crowd of Soldiers. A few of them giggled with glee, others just stared, eyes glinting.

"Uh-oh," I said. I paused, considering my options, before bolting. I couldn't get up enough speed to take off, though, because Soldiers kept jumping in front of me whenever I was about to jump into the air.

I might have been toast if Spyro hadn't appeared suddenly. Many fireballs later, Soldiers were flying everywhere and the ship was on fire.

"You will always remember this day as the day you almost caught Captain Crystal!" I yelled to the Soldiers that were left.

I turned and dashed away, pursued by Soldiers. One jumped into the air when I did, but I got away unscathed and flew over to Spyro. Since the Soldiers' attention had been on me, they had forgotten to steer their ship. it crashed full-speed into an iceberg and sank into the water.

"Well, _Captain _Crystal," Spyro said in a mocking tone, "did you forget the bag with all our food?"

I glanced back at the pirate ship.

"DANG IT!"


	12. An Unlikely Saviour

"Dante's Freezer is a desolate arctic expanse that's littered with the machinery of war." Ignitus' voice was distant and quiet, and it came from inside my head. I looked at Spyro and Sparx quizzically and their confused looks confirmed what I was thinking—we all were hearing it.

"Soldiers and weapons frozen forever in the posture of destruction. You must find Volteer, before he is lost... forever," Ignitus continued, before falling silent.

Spyro and I looked around for a good landing spot. We needed to start on the ground. There were numerous forts and this Volteer could be in any one of them.

We turned sharply and headed for the ground, into an area enclosed by a tall wall. As I began to pick up speed, I was suddenly hit with the thought... how did I land? We were almost nose-diving for the ground now and we couldn't slow down!

"How the heck do I land?!" Spyro yelled, already spiraling out of control.

"This doesn't look good," Sparx said, trying to keep up with us.

"Coming in too fast!" Spyro announced as if it weren't obvious.

"I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!" This came from me.

"INCOMING!"

"That's gonna hurt..." Sparx said, but I could hardly hear him over Spyro's yell.

"Ow!" I smashed face-first onto the ice and slid along until I hit a snowbank. "Ow," I said again.

I was disoriented but unharmed, at least for the most part. My nose was throbbing and my head hurt. A red trickle of blood stained the ice, but my nose wasn't bleeding too badly. It could be said that that went better than expected... I could have broken something other than my nose from that fall, maybe even have been killed.

Thanking my lucky stars, I stood up and immediately fell back down. I repeated this until I had slid all the way over to Spyro, who was struggling as well. He managed to catch his balance, though, and I somehow was able to climb to my feet and stay there.

"Nice landing, ace!" Sparx laughed. I shot Sparx a glare and punched Spyro's arm.

"Ow! What was that for?!" Spyro demanded.

"That was for you transferring the Curse of Spyro's klutziness to me. I can hardly stand." I wobbled precariously just to show my point.

"Yeah... maybe this flying thing ain't for me," Spyro said, rolling his eyes. He glanced around.

"Yeah, well it sure doesn't help that you're carrying all that _weight," _Sparx said. Spyro slowly turned and glare at him. "You know, throw a salad in every once in a while, you might be okay."

Sighing, I took in the place. We were in a small, enclosed area. The walls surrounding us were black and had mean-looking wooden stakes driven in the ground in front of them. We were standing on some clear ground that sparkled when the sunlight reflected off it. There was snow everywhere, and most of it was untouched. There were a few tracks, though, which I eyed suspiciously.

I tried to continue forward, only to find that if I moved, I would fall again. I decided that standing still was the best option.

"Yeah, I think I'll stick to the ground..." Spyro said.

"Good idea." Sparx rolled his eyes.

"Meanwhile, what is this stuff?" I asked, staring at the strange, slippery ground.

"It's ice, Crystal. Water ices over when it gets cold," Spyro explained.

"Oh. I knew that..."

"Not exactly a... friendly place, huh?" Spyro asked uneasily, ignoring me and looking around again. "I wonder where we should start."

"Well, I'm no hero like you, but maybe we should take that clearly marked path that leads to the interior?" Sparx suggested sarcastically, pointing to the aforementioned path.

I thought of something to get back at Sparx for his irritating sarcasm and slowly grinned. Slipping and sliding, I managed to follow Spyro onto the snowbank, who was blissfully unaware of my mini-plot. Once on the snow that sunk under my paws but at least didn't send me sprawling, I began to pack a snowball.

"Oh, Sparx. I need to have a word with you," I said with a devious grin, throwing the the snowball up and down in a paw.

I think something in his little brain clicked. Sparx flew away in an attempt to save himself, but instead ran into a metal wall, knocking himself unconscious.

"Sparx!" I yelled, running over to him and stooping over him. "Oops," I said once I realized he was fine, just unconscious. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Spyro asked nervously, running over to see if Sparx was hurt.

"He'll be fine," I said, masking my worry with a calm exterior. "He'll just have a headache. Come on, we need to keep moving."

Spyro picked up Sparx and we continued on. Partway through our trek towards the path, Sparx regained consciousness. He was staying far away from me.

As we headed over to a large opening in the wall that led to another area, I allowed my mind to drift from the course. I looked around at all the snow in awe. It hardly snowed or even got cold in the Swamp. This was more snow than I had ever thought I would see in one day, and it wasn't even winter, either! Any other time I would have been delighted, but this seemed to be an urgent matter. I had no time for fooling around.

Though one thing about this place that intrigued me was what happened whenever I exhaled. I puffed out some air, and my breath lingered before me for a moment before disappearing. The only downfall of all these strange wonders was that it was so cold, but I realized that when I was moving, I was less cold. I decided that if I kept walking I wouldn't freeze, and there was always my fire breath.

"Is it weird that it blinked at me?" Sparx asked. I hardly gave what he was referring to, some sort of icy statue, a second glance.

"Just keep moving..." Spyro replied.

We yelled out in pain as the ice cubes making up a large statue-like chunk of ice came flying towards us and hit us. I pulled a bloody icicle out of my leg. _Ow!_

"ICE CUBES ALIVE!" Sparx screamed, startling me. I jumped. Tendrils of pain curled up my leg, but I wasn't worried about that at the moment.

I examined the two creatures that had broken the ice they had been trapped in. They had sickly green skin and were wore armour black as night. Their shields and swords, with edges that glinted in the sunlight, were a similar colour. I detected a smell about them that was decidedly dead, suspiciously.

I had little time to take in more, though, for one of them swiped at me with its sword. I dodged, hopping to the side, and rammed into it. He slammed into the wall and I finished him off with a bout of flame.

I stepped back when I was done and glanced at Spyro, who had already taken out the other soldier. He had a worried look on his face. I blinked.

"What?" I asked.

"You're bleeding."

I looked down at my leg. There was a wound where the icicle had hit me. Blood trickled out of it, marring the purple scales.

"I'll be okay." I said, limping forward. It was hardly bleeding and I could still walk. There was no need to worry.

I couldn't help think about how awful I must have looked already, though. Here I was only ten minutes at Dante's Freezer, and already I had quite a few bruises, a mildly broken nose, and a limp.

I sighed and looked at the area we had entered. It was some sort of camp site, surrounded by mountains on one side and walls on the other. I saw a bunch of spiky thorns sticking out of the ground, making a sort of fence, along with a steaming pot of some strange food—a grumble of my stomach reminded me that I was hungry, but there was _no way _I was eating Soldier food—and a catapult near a large pine tree. Beside the catapult was a weapon rack, filled with swords, axes, and other melee weapons I couldn't place a name to. A barrel of dynamite sat nearby. Across the clearing was a large, imposing wooden gate, but it was closed.

"Why don't we use this thing to knock that bad boy down?" Sparx asked, referring to the catapult and the gate, respectively.

Spyro chuckled. "I knew I brought you along for a reason."

Sparx, clearly offended, huffed and crossed his arms. "So, what exactly are we loading onto this thing?" he asked tensely.

I looked around, and spotted a tree. I smacked it with my horns, and a few rock-hard snowballs fell down, shaken from the branches.

"You've gotta be kidding me."

I picked up one of the snowballs and tossed it into the air, catching it again. "Do you _want _me to be kidding you? Because I'm sure I can find a use for these things if so."

"Carry on," was Sparx's quick response.

I rolled the snowball onto the catapult, Spyro cranking the lever to make the catapult go off, and Sparx pulling the catapult down so I could reload. That went on for a while. My limp hindered me and prevented me from walking quickly. But with each snowball, cracks grew on the gate, spiraling and snaking down, down, until they covered the whole thing. Finally, the wall let out a spectacular crack as the last snowball collided and shattered into a million pieces.

"That was I good idea... glad I thought of it," Spyro said, glancing at Sparx and holding back a laugh. I grinned my approval.

"You? Glad... _you?! _No!" Sparx exclaimed, glaring at Spyro.

_He's just not having a good day today, is he? _I thought. _Nobody is, I suppose._

Spyro and I ran over to where the gate had been and went into the next area—well, actually, I hop-ran because putting pressure on my leg hurt. I stuffed some snow onto my wound in an attempt to heal it, but I still couldn't run. And there were no Spirit Gems in sight.

As Spyro, Sparx, and I headed through the gate-hole, climbing over pieces of debris, we noticed yet another spiky fence, and _yet another _wall. This one was small, though, and made out of wood rather than metal.

On the wall beyond the spiky fence, a Commander stood. He held dynamite, which he proceeded to light and throw once he spotted us. And, just my luck, a wave of Soldiers streamed out from the arch in the wall and proceeded to jump over the spike fence.

"I thought this place wouldn't have Soldiers all over it," I complained, breathing fire and killing one.

It also got a little boring, fighting the same things over and over again. The only difference between these Soldiers and the last was that they wore heavier fur armour, and the armour itself was white instead of brown.

I cried out in pain as my wounded leg held me down like a rock and prevented me from dodging a blow to the jaw which sent me stumbling back. I breathed fire again and glanced at Spyro. He had killed six Soldiers, while I had defeated only two, I noticed in dismay.

"I would kill to have my bag right now," I said. I remember the Spirit Gem I had placed in there. If only I had that, I could heal myself.  
"Crystal? You _did _kill," was Spyro's reply. He never took his eyes off the Commander.

As if on cue, a Dreadwing flew above me, carrying my bag on its back. It slipped was dropped on my head with a plunk. To add insult to injury (literal injury!), the Dreadwing dropped a box of Soldiers that it had been carrying in its claws. The box _exploded _and left only unharmed Soldiers in its wake.

I stood up and shook my head. "The magic of red gems," I said with a laugh. taking the crystal out of my bag and absorbing the energy. The pain faded to a dull ache, the wound stopped bleeding completely, and I could run again.

"Much better." I ran for the Soldiers.


	13. Already Changing

Yeah, it is official. That Commander loved dynamite.

Spyro and I, having finished off the Soldiers, went after the Commander who stood on his vantage point, cackling at us and throwing dynamite. It wasn't easy getting up there, though. Not even a little bit.

Whenever Spyro tried to get up the wall via some smaller raised wall sections that allowed him to reach up and climb to the top, he got blasted off by a dynamite explosion. I knew I would feel guilty later if I didn't help him back up, and besides, he might have been hurt. I was slightly annoyed and the up-and-down- process, but I finally managed to get Spyro to the top of the wall before one of us got sent skidding through the snow. I easily knocked the large Commander over the edge and into the spiky fence.

Okay, Spyro had to help me. Still.

"Pfft. Spyro, those things are such are such id—WHAAA!" I was sent flying as the rickety wall front collapsed on itself, sending Spyro and I flying. I was sent face-first into the snow, and Spyro landed in a tree.

"Told ya you two weighed too much," Sparx whispered, flying close to me.

I tried to catch him, flipping out of the snow, but he was already gone. I rolled my eyes in annoyance and looked around. We were in a small courtyard, walls surrounding it on three sides and a fort on one. That was where Sparx had gone, through the entrance of the long, vertical fort.

Spyro and I climbed the stairs and Sparx lit the way through the long hallway. It didn't take us long to realize that the fort had been attacked. The hall that led to the rest of the fortress was caved in with stone.

_Volteer better not have been in here, _I thought. I knew it was unlikely, though. He would be somewhere in the middle, not in a place so close to the border. And even if he had been held captive in that fort, the Soldiers had probably evacuated him.

Luckily, further damage had been done to the fort—a wall had been smashed in, giving us a clear path to the next area. I stepped down softly, careful not to slip on the debris.

We entered a field that expanded over a large area. The field was nearly bare of snow, as it had all been trampled down. A lone tree was in the middle of the field, near a catapult, and on the other end was another rampart with a closed gate in its middle.

But the most notable feature of this field was the camp in the middle. The snow had been stamped out completely in the area where the fireplace was. A stack of dynamite barrel, some tents, and a wooden raised thing with a ramp leading up to it was near.

In the camp was a Commander and some Soldiers. A few patrolled the area, while others loitered about the campfire. A patrolling Soldier spotted us first; he hooted to his friends and they all spun around or jumped up. The Commander raised his staff and ran past the gate, proceeding to make a magic barrier like the one Ignitus had made for training that separated us from the camp. The only difference in the barriers was that this one glowed blue instead of red.

It was clear what should be done. I looked at the catapult, then at Spyro, then back at the catapult.

"Is this being planned out for us or something?" I wondered aloud, hitting the tree and pushing the snowball that fell out of it onto the catapult. I aimed it so it would hit the Commander, but I must have done it wrong, because it hit the stack of dynamite barrels instead.

The Soldiers ran for their lives, of course, but they couldn't escape the explosion. Many were sent flying, landing on the ground with limbs splayed out in every direction. The gate had been hit by the explosion as well, causing it to fly open, and the barrier disappeared. The Commander had apparently been hit by the explosion as well.

It's never that easy.

Another Commander came from around the bend beyond the wall, followed by his henchmen. He made a barrier where the gate had been and sent his Soldiers after me. They ran over the path, jumped off cliff edges, and simply swarmed us from all directions. The band of Soldiers were set of fire and sent dancing about. They flew into the air from horn jabs and caused chaos with their swipes and tackles. It was crazy. Once Spyro and I had offed them all—a feat that took quite a long time, I must say!—a Dreadwing just _had _to come and drop a container of Soldiers on us.

"Once again, _who _would volunteer for that?!" I yelled, letting out a bout of fire. My only answer was the Soldiers' cold laughter.

"Maybe they didn't agree," Sparx said seriously a moment later. I snorted and shrugged.

Fire, combined with a little aerial melee, easy put the small band of Soldiers down. The furious Commander growled and ran away, the barrier disappearing with him. We all ran after him, following the path and turning a bend. Instead of the Commander, though, we were greeted by a Soldier sitting in a metal cannon that shot out a stream of ice.

I distracted the Soldier while Spyro jumped over the fence and onto the higher ground. Dodging a stream of ice, he jumped up and threw the Soldier out of the cannon. I fell upon him, killing him quickly with a slice to the throat.

There was a short lapse of silence. Nobody moved; it was as if time had stopped but we were still breathing. The thought of just taking a step forward never crossed my mind.

And then the spell that had been cast on us suddenly faded and everybody was awake again. We headed forward, continuing down the path. Time to move on.

Up a slight hill we ran, following the narrow path. On both sides walls of snow or trees to thick to walk through blocked our path, so there was only one way to go: forward.

After a few minutes, we stumbled on a clearing that was anything but clear. A large fort, facing east, was on the extreme left. Beside it were trees, and dangling from the branches were empty cages that swung and creaked in the breeze. In the middle of the clearing was a large pond, completely frozen over with ice. On the ice was a catapult. To the east, a few planks were propped up and led up to the top of a short cliff. A pillar of stone was on the cliff and on top of it was another ice- stream-shooting device.

As we neared the end of the path, the sky flashed as if lightning had struck and a silhouette streaked through the sky. I blinked and it was gone. Shivers ran down my spine when I realized what—who—it was.

"Think that was Cynder?" Sparx asked rhetorically.

"I sure hope so," Spyro said.

"What?!" Sparx exclaimed, staring at Spyro as if he were crazy.

"Well if... if it wasn't that means there's more than one giant, evil dragon around here," Spyro replied solemnly.

"Oh. I hope it was Cynder too," Sparx said flatly.

Spyro and I walked over to the fort and headed inside. It was not so much a fort as a protective wall with a doorway in it, as there were no walls on the right and left side and the ceiling had gaping holes in it.

The Commander that had attacked us was here. He growled and, before I could even move, jumped over us, crossed the field, and ran behind the pillar. Another magic barrier appeared behind him. Soldiers began pouring out in his wake. Some stayed and began to roll lit dynamite barrels down the plank and at us. Others came directly for us.

We ran back outside, into the field. The whole place was exploding as dynamite barrels rolled along. It was a wonder the ice didn't crack.

Soldiers and undead warriors just suddenly started coming out of nowhere. Some streamed out of the fort, some ran from the cliff where the pillar was, and others jumped over the giant snowbanks on either side of the clearing. They formed a neat crowd, surrounding us.

"What do we do?" Spyro exclaimed as they began to close in.

"Spyro. You're forgetting something," I said calmly.

"What?"

"We can fly!" I grabbed his arm and pulled him up into the air. We flew onto what was left of the roof of the fort, but our peril didn't end there. The Soldiers began to climb the fort or the trees beside it, and it wouldn't be long until they reached us.

"We're trapped! There's no way we have enough room to get into the air and the drop from here to the ground is too high!" Spyro exclaimed.

"Guess what?" I demanded, casting a glance over the Soldiers that were near us.

"What?"

"Shut up!"

I hopped onto the tree beside the fort, with Spyro following. There was a Soldier hanging on the branch, but a kick to the face convinced him to let go. I was holding some rope in my paw, that I had picked up from the fort's ceiling and carried over with me.

"Crystal? Where do you get that rope? Why are you tying it onto the tree? And—" Spyro stopped mid-sentence as I pointed to the catapult, which had a knot fastened onto the beam. I had tied it earlier when we had passed the catapult.

"You're crazy!" Spyro exclaimed, getting wind of my idea.

"Good, because this probably wouldn't work if I wasn't." I grabbed him and the rope and jumped off the branch just as it cracked under my weight. A dynamite barrel hit the catapult, causing it to launch, which gave us a start and stopped us from plummeting to the ground. We went flying across the wave of shocked enemies. A snowball that I had also loaded onto the catapult when nobody was looking sailed across the air and hit the ice cannon on the pillar. The only one who was not affected in the process was the Commander, who had somehow escaped. Again.

Spyro and I landed safely on the cliff, but my miraculous plan wasn't over yet. I turned around expectantly.

A series of explosions went off. It started with the lake and ended with the fort, which had the biggest explosion of all. The whole building erupted into flames. Besides that glorious spectacle, Soldiers and undead littered the area. None had escaped the blasts. The only thing left was the collapsed fort and the lake, the ice on it shattered into pieces.

I refuse to reveal exactly how I made that happen, but let's just say it had something to do with dynamite sitting in the fort. I may or may not have pulled a few kegs out, and all barrels, inside and out, just-so-happened to have been lit. And all under the noses of everybody present. I grinned at Spyro.

"You suffer from insanity, my dear sister," said Spyro with a grin.

"Spyro, I don't _suffer_ from insanity...I enjoy every minute of it!" I cackled evilly, continuing forward.


	14. A Different World

I approached the ruins that were behind the pillar. There was a tower here, but its top had been destroyed and there were many gaps in it. The debris was scattered all over the ground. Fire burned everywhere. In front of us was what used to be a bridge, but the middle was smashed.

While I had been observing the area, Spyro had already gone ahead. I ran forward.

"Spyro?" I asked.

As if in a trance, Spyro continued forward.

"Spyro, buddy? You okay?" Sparx asked.

No response. Spyro approached the bridge's edge, where it dropped into the abyss below. For one terrifying moment I thought he wouldn't stop walking, but he halted when he reached the farthest end before it broke off. Spyro didn't move and neither did me or Sparx. I was reminded of the time, a few minutes ago, right after we had killed the Soldier manning the cannon.

I blinked when something black landed on my nose. It was like a snowflake, but snow wasn't black.

Ash.

I looked up and saw it, ash falling from the sky, blanketing the snow with grey and black specks. So many buildings dotted throughout Dante's Freezer were burning. I coughed and slowly walked forward, approaching Spyro.

"Spyro... we've got to keep moving," I said.

Slowly, Spyro turned around and looked at me. What I saw scared me half to death. Spyro's eyes...they were...lifeless. The fire, the happiness...the _Spyro _I usually saw in his eyes...were gone. Cast into oblivion.

"Is something...wrong?" I asked, my senses on edge. I trembled slightly.

"Nothing... it's just... it's getting to me, Crystal."

I knew what he meant. We were to children, hardly old enough to comprehend what we were doing. We had killed, destroyed, and even though it was evil we killed... we did. Yet, somehow we didn't go crazy and we kept pushing on. This wasn't right, we weren't supposed to be seeing all this, but we were anyway.

"We're doing this for Ignitus, Volteer, the islands, the world, Spyro. We have to go." The ash flew around me, marring my purple scales with streaks of black and masking my calm face.

I didn't blame him. I longed to return home again, to the Swamp, where I belonged. But I couldn't. I needed to stay, to do this, no matter how much fear lingered in the back of my mind. For I felt, I _knew, _that things weren't ever going to be the same. I was changing already... I was no longer the girl I had been just a day ago.

"I—what if this is the end?"

"It's not," I said seriously. "This isn't an end. It's a beginning... a new beginning."

Spyro sighed. "You're right. Let's go." He turned and padded off.

_You going to be okay? _I thought to him as we walked off. I wasn't satisfied with his answer. He still wasn't happy.

_I'll be fine, Crystal. Don't worry about me._

_I'm not going to stop worrying about you. Ever._

_Crystal..._

"What, having a private conversation without me?" Sparx demanded, likely noticing how quiet we had been.

"Maybe." I forced a laugh.

No more was said at the moment, for we had encountered another field. There was a single tree here, growing placidly beside another catapult. Way on the other end of the field was an ash-black tower, made out of the darkest metal.

It was clear by now that there was some sort of war going on Dante's Freezer. It was the hordes of undead versus the Soldiers, Leaders, and Commanders. The undead warriors had been around first and had built all of the forts and towers, but the Soldiers had come in and kicked them all out, which made the undead angry. So now everybody was fighting a war of sorts.

Or so I assumed.

The field was below us; we were standing on a raised area. Spyro and I jumped down and stepped forward carefully. It was quiet... too quiet. I glanced at the catapult then to the tower suspiciously. What had happened here? Suddenly, the tower top began to hum and spark with electricity.

"Something tells me that's not good," I said.

"Look out!" Spyro yelled. I had stepped back, but it was too late. We were both hit with arcing electricity, shot out from the tower.

I think I did a somersault backwards and was left sitting on the ground, reeling. I couldn't think straight. My thoughts were everywhere and nowhere and somewhere and over there, all at the same time. My vision was spotted like a cheetah's fur, and the spots kept growing, shrinking, and fading only to reappear again. Everything was numb, and then it all hurt so that I couldn't bear it, and then the spots were gone and I was on my feet.

I took one quick breath after another. I was breathing the electricity, in, out, in, out.

"Spyro! Crystal! You two okay?" Sparx asked, but I could hardly hear them.

It was like two rocks hitting each other in my mouth, creating sparks. I began to feel the buzzing sensation overwhelming me. I wanted to keep that sparking feeling to myself, but when the undead soldiers approached, I let them have it instead. A burst of electricity escaped my mouth, shocking the soldiers and causing them to drop to the ground, paralyzed.

"Woo! I guess so!" Sparx exclaimed.

Feeling hyper and even a little bit giddy, I ran to attack the undead, using my new-found electricity breath. Meanwhile, Spyro loaded and shot off the cannon at the tower. I covered him, using electricity to throw the warriors away whenever they tried to go near Spyro. That was a pretty useful trait about the breath—as long as I aimed right, I could knock anything right off its feet!

"WAIT!" I shouted. I had lured the enemies over to the edge of the cliff on one side of the field. Below the cliff was an endless fall. To my shock, the idiots actually stopped.

"Um... look over there!" I pointed at Spyro. They looked. I took the opportunity to throw them over the edge with electricity. "Bye!" I yelled, leaning over the edge.

I looked up as there was an explosion. Spyro had shot off the last snowball, annihilating the tower. He walked over to me and grinned. I smiled back.

On we continued, through a doorway behind the tower that led to another large fort. There was a small, cramped hall and a lot of doors lining it. This didn't look like the type of place a large dragon would be held in, so we continued on... right into another courtyard.

I saw a large band of Soldiers led by a Leader walking forward. Behind them was a series of gates, resembling stables. The group was dispatched more easily than I anticipated, though the Leader gave us a little trouble. We just couldn't get him over the edge and into one of those icy pits.

On we continued, through one of the gates. We were met with more debris and fire, and smoke so thick that I could hardly breathe the tainted air or see through my watering eyes. Spyro, Sparx, and I quickly hurried over to a gate leading to a bridge, coughing all the way.

I happened to look up halfway through this trek, I happened to look up. Squinting, I saw a form I recognized as a Soldier even through my impaired vision. The Soldier whirled around and ran for it. I rushed forward, towards the oversized stairs that led up to the bridge. We headed through the gate, but the Soldier had disappeared.

I walked forward, undaunted and blissfully unaware. I only knew that it was quiet. I hate to reuse this statement, but yes, it was _too _quiet.

Suddenly, the Soldier popped into view, on the other side of the bridge. He laughed and taunted us before running away. I ran forward, intending to catch him once and for all, but the gate slammed shut in my face and my already-injured nose received another bruise.

I turned around, knowing now that it was a trap all along, but the gate we had come by was closed as well. There was only the narrow bridge with walls too high to climb rising on either side of it.

There was only one warning shriek before the explosions started. Dreadwings mercilessly dropped cartons of Soldiers on us. Besides hurting us, they were practically burying us alive. I couldn't use my elements, because I had no idea where Spyro and Sparx were and I'd rather not have burned them to crisps and/or shocked them to death. I thrashed about, hitting as many Soldiers as I could, but more kept coming and I had no room to maneuver.

In the end, Spyro and I had to improvise. And by improvise, I mean Fury. Now, the funny thing about Fury is that mine didn't hurt Spyro and vice versa. I was never able to figure out why, but that's how it was. I never found out if it was the same for Sparx and didn't really want to; too dangerous. He just flew far away whenever we used Fury.

Well, the Fury worked nicely, burning all of the Soldiers to crisps and burning all Dreadwings in the vicinity besides. I exhaled deeply once I dropped onto the ground. I didn't feel as weak as I did when I first used Fury, so that must have meant I was improving, I concluded.

"I think we could have saved it," Spyro said.

"Saved what?" I asked.

"The power we used."

"Are you kidding me? You probably would have burnt me to ashes or electrified me if we had just fought in that small space."

"Would have been a nice change..."

I smacked him lightly on the head. "Okay, let's get this gate open. Just help me smash it down."

We backed up until we were nearly on the other side of the bridge. Then, with an unnecessary cry of, "CHAAAAAAAAARGE!" from me, we ran forward and hit the gate with our shoulders. Sparx watched in amused disbelief. Minus my outcry, Spyro and I repeated this until the gate went down. My shoulder hurt, but I ignored the ache and picked myself up.

Through the gate was a small camp inhabited by a Leader and a handful of Soldiers. It was nothing much; a pot, some tents, and a few holes in the wall. After dispatching the group, I jumped through the first hole I saw.

I led the way inside. This cave was even colder than the rest of Dante's Freezer. I had mostly gotten used to the temperature, but this was just freezing. I shivered as I walked along.

But then I heard a rumble. A cold feeling, colder than anything I had ever felt, even this gave, ran all through me. I instinctively looked up, afraid of what I would see, and with good reason. Lining the ceiling, in every place they could fit, were icicles. Not just any icicles, though. These particular icicles were sharper than swords, with points that glinted meanly in the dim light. And they. Were. _Loose._

"Spyro."

...

"Spyro."

...

"_Spyro."_

"What?!"

"RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!"

Spyro looked up, looked at me, and took off.

We ran, ran, ran! I never looked back, but I could hear the crashing of icicles behind me, as they hit the hard floor. Heart pounding so fast that I thought it would stop, I tried to speed up, but I was going as fast as I could. Spyro began to overtake me; Sparx was already at the end.

My limp was still present, you see... the Spirit Gem I had used to heal myself was only small, so the wound could only have healed so much. My limp was gone, but my leg still hindered me. I began to fall behind.

Crash! Crash! Crash! I dared to look back. If I had been any slower, I would have been impaled by many icicles.

_I can hear them behind me... _I thought, trying to comfort myself. _Okay, just go for the light, Crystal. Go for the bright—wait. Light? ! Am I dead? Oh, wait... that's just Sparx. Okay, run for Sparx. Run for—_

Sometime in the middle of my frantic running and panicked thoughts, everything went cold and black. I don't remember what happened. Perhaps I tripped and just completely blacked out from the shock.

"CRYSTAL!"

"What? ! Huh..."I opened my eyes, and saw Spyro looking at me, fear dancing in his eyes. I sat up, and was suddenly aware that I was extremely cold. "What happened?" I asked, shuddering.

"You were running, and you just passed out." Spyro seemed to just be calming down now.  
I lifted myself off the snow. "But what about the icicles? Why aren't I...?"

"They just barely missed you."

_Whoa... _I thought. I had been less than an inch away from my demise.

"Let's just keep moving. We're almost there. I can feel it." I shivered out a response, managing to keep calm.

I couldn't believe it. I had come so close to ending up dead to leaving Spyro and Sparx to continue on their own. What would have happened if I had died? Would Spyro be able to go on without me?

What a different world this was.


	15. Yakkity Yak

I stretched, joints popping. I must have been out for a long time, considering I was so cold and stiff. I peered out a hole that had been smashed in the cave and found myself staring into a field surrounded by cliffs. I couldn't see the west end, but I caught sight of a fort at the edge of my vision.

There was a pacing Soldier in the field. My heart skipped a beat when he spun towards us unexpectedly. It seemed like he had seen us, but he ignored us, and instead ran over to the fort. There was a fuse, likely leading to dynamite barrels, trailing out in front of it. The Soldier lit the fuse and made no move to run. There was a great, _loud _explosion that killed the Soldier and all of the undead inside it. And, besides that, it attracted the attention of Dreadwings, who brought in reinforcements.

That Soldier must have had self-hate ice warrior issues to do that. Yes, I finally came up with a name for them. Ice warriors. _Undead _ice warriors.

Spyro and I hopped out of the tunnel and glided down to the ground that was a few feet below. I rammed into a Soldier and zapped three more to death. Spyro finished the rest off, but I didn't see how. I looked around, suddenly feeling odd, then looked up.

"!" I screamed. There wasn't quite a proper way to describe what I yelled when a Dreadwing dropped a carton of Soldiers on me.

After a lot of screaming, angry flailing, and elements flying everywhere, most of the apes were dead. To the ones that were left, I said, "Please... get out of here... and tell the Dreadwings to STOP DROPPING STUFF ON ME!"

The three Soldiers left turned on their heels and lit out before I could stand.

"Spyro... next time... warn me _before _something lands on me," I panted out. Spyro and Sparx stared at me, mouths slightly agape.

Spyro shook his head slowly and led me away before I could get anything else dropped on me. In front of us was a wall and an open gate, but I ignored it and walked over to a puddle that was, surprisingly, not frozen over. I leaned down to take a drink. My throat was killing me. But the water froze in my mouth before I could swallow it.

I blinked. "Owh. Owh. Owwwwh!" I said—or more like tried to say—as the roof of my mouth froze to my tongue. "Syo, _hel _ee!"

Spyro just shook his head, clearly exasperated. I followed him through another gate and into a seemingly empty courtyard. I felt a pricking feeling inside me, but I looked around but saw nothing. It was still for several seconds, but then I picked up the scent of the Soldiers and undead warriors.

"Syo! Syo! Ook! Ook! Weh behih ahhack!" I flailed an arm in the air and tried to get Spyro's attention.

"We're being what?" Spyro stared at me.

"Ah_hack!"_

"What?"

Irritated, I thought it to him. _Attacke—_

The gate on the other side of the courtyard suddenly slammed open. A yak, ridden by an ice warrior, and a lot of Soldiers stormed through it. But my focus was on the former! The yak looked the way it had been described to me; furry, colossally tall, and it had big, black, cold eyes. The ice warrior that was sitting on its saddled back was holding a spear. The sharp metal tip glinted in the sunlight.

"Yah!" the ice warrior screamed, charging towards Spyro. He aimed his spear right at him. I was scared stiff. I couldn't move no matter what I did.

"Aaah!" Spyro and I screamed together as the yak got closer and closer, blowing out large puffs of air from its nostrils.

I suddenly regained movement and tackled Spyro, just as the yak person plunged the spear forward. I breathed a sigh of relief. I had saved him.

"Come on, let's take them out," I said, holding out a paw.

Spyro took it and climbed to his feet. "Thanks."

"No problem," I replied.

Spyro smiled and turned his attention to the yak. He distracted it while I circled behind it. I dropped into a stealthy crouch and crawled forward. I jumped onto the yak, who didn't seem to notice me, and sneaked up behind the warrior.

"Bed time!" I exclaimed. What a witty one-liner.

The ice warrior turned around, but in a flurry of purple he was attacked and violently thrown off the yak. He didn't rise from the snow, so, satisfied, I took the reins.

"You don't know how to steer that thing!" Sparx exclaimed.

"Yup," I said, leaning forward and taking a firm hold on the animal. "Yah!"

The yak bellowed, a sound so loud that my head hurt from hearing it so close, and charged through the gate that had closed after the enemies had entered. The gate doors went flying in all directions, landing in the snow with bangs. The gate doors weren't the only things sent sprawling into the air, though. There were quite a few Soldier casualties.

I turned around and walked the yak back into the courtyard before I even looked at the area. I steered over beside Spyro, who had just finished off the last of the enemies.

"Need a lift?" I asked with a smirk.

"But you don't—"

"—know how to ride this thing? No, no I don't."

Spyro shrugged and hopped on.

We headed into the place that led through the gate. It was an enclosed area with a fort to the left and walls closing in all the other sides. In front of us was a tower that resembled the one that had shocked us earlier. Seeing a bunch of ice warriors that were bigger and bulkier than the normal kind, I charged again and trampled them. Easy.

A Commander appeared at the fort's door, but he payed no heed to us. He just held up his Spirit Gem staff, with a blue crystal in it. Ice magic shot out of it, wrapping around the tower and squeezing it like a snake. The tower became dented, and then it scrunched over as if something had squeezed its middle, and then it completely broke, debris shooting into the air. I had to hop back to avoid a piece of metal landing on me. The Commander disappeared back into the fort.

"Alright, boy. This is where we part," I said to the yak, while Spyro and Sparx just stared in disbelief. The yak bellowed softly, a sound almost like a purr.

"I know, I know, but you won't ever fit through there." I motioned to the door. "You'd need a Dreadwing to carry you over. Alright, take care of yourself, okay?" I asked with the air of a sympathetic mother. The yak bellowed and raced off in the opposite direction, back through the gate.

With that covered, I turned, climbed up the stairs, and headed down the fort hall. Spyro and Sparx immediately hit me with a torrent of questions.

"How do you do that?"

"How did you know it was male?"

"How the heck did you tame a completely wild creature like that?"

"Can you tell the future?"

I turned slowly to look at Sparx, confusion painted on my face.

"Well..."

"I guess it just liked me," I replied, shrugging. "I got lucky."

Spyro still continued to stare at me. I shook my head and turned. We had come to the end of the fort's hall and entered a large field with a red Spirit Gem in the middle of it. It glowed and sparkled enchanting me, luring me towards it, but I kept my pace to a walk. This _had _to be a trap.

"I don't like this..." Spyro said quietly, walking forward.

I looked all around, but I couldn't find a trace of anybody. No Soldiers rushing around the corner, no eyes glowing in the shadows of the trees on the cliffs, and not even the slightest whiff of an enemy anywhere. The only sound was the crunching of snow and the occasional gust of wind ruffling the tree leaves.

We reached the middle of the field and I tensed. True to my instincts, a Commander was suddenly on-scene—the same Commander we had been chasing around all day, I realized, the one that had escaped the fort explosion incident. The Commander held his staff up and a barrier shot out, making a circle around us and the Spirit Gem.

"Spyro?" I squeaked.

"Yeah?"

"I want my yak."

A bunch of Soldiers started popping out of the ground through some sort of tunnel system, throwing dynamite out of the holes they made and appearing only to make a brief attack. They never completely came out, though, and I couldn't catch them. Although this was not fun, it gave me an idea.

The next time a Soldier popped up, I dived for him instead of trying to just hit him. Of course, he went back down, but I followed him.

I entered a dark but warm tunnel, permeated by the stench of the Soldiers that used it. I glimpsed the disappearing tail of a Soldier and followed it around the bend.

I growled when I came upon the Soldier again and attacked him. The battle was short. I was hit quite a few times; the tunnel was not very spacious and I could not dodge.

Now that I was in the tunnel, though, another problem was presented: I still couldn't catch the Soldiers. Whenever I cornered them, they just sprung out of a hole and ran to another one. Spyro was busy dealing with the Commander and couldn't catch them. So, it was time for Plan B.

I climbed out of a hole with much trouble and waited. The Commander was throwing dynamite at Spyro. Next time he did so, I took a flying leap and caught the dynamite midair. I hastily ran over to one of the holes and threw the red stick in.

There was an explosion and a bang. Smoke poured out of all of the holes, and I heard the sound of the collapsing tunnels, followed by silence. Any Soldier that had not been killed by the explosion had been buried alive.

Unfortunately, the Commander managed to slip away in the confusion. _Again. _At least he took the magic fence with him.

"Come on! We've got to catch him!" Spyro exclaimed, practically dragging me forward. I followed him, crossing the field in a few bounds.

I nearly ran into the fort after I turned the bend at the end of the field. I barely managed to skid to a stop in time. I looked up at the walls... the fort was made out of metal, like many of the structures here. Its walls were worn with time, but they still had a pearly sheen. I felt a bit of trepidation, instincts kicking in, but I didn't even notice at the time. The whole placemade me feel cautious.

I strode into the first room. It was dark in here, the only light coming from the doorway and a small fire under a pot. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of whatever was cooking in it. I don't want to know what was in there.

Since there was nothing of interest in this small room, our party continued on to the next. Here, there was more light, coming from various holes and cracks in the ceiling. Across the room was a hallway and another one, just as ruined as the one we were in. Debris was scattered about both rooms. We walked forward, climbing whenever a particularly destroyed area could not be walked around. Through the hallway we went, and into the aforementioned second room.

There was practically no ceiling here, and little room as a consequence. There was a single, splintery wood bench sitting against the wall. In the middle of rooms were a few tables and more benches on either side. Some tables, mostly at the end of the room, had been smashed by the fallen ceiling. There was another pot here as well.

I leapt back into the hallway as a carton of Soldiers, dropped by a passing Dreadwing, fell without warning onto the tables. Some were simply knocked aside; others were destroyed completely. It was easy to just electrocute them and defeat them—the Soldiers, of course, not the tables.

I lead Spyro and Sparx into the next room. The fort was built into the ice; one wall was nothing but. The room was empty except for a few Spirit Gems that grew near the makeshift wall. I looked up as Spyro pushed me.

"Wha—" I began, but stopped mid-sentence.

Soldiers had come into the room, about a dozen of them. But that was not what had caused me to stop in surprise. They were standing perfectly still, malicious grins painted on their faces. But every last one of them were staring right at me.


	16. Jayred Iceheart

**A/N:**

**Jayred Iceheart is my OC; I own him, I came up with him. Please do not use him without my consent or knowledge.**

* * *

I started to back away. Why were they looking at me like that? The Soldiers inched towards me, closer and closer, so slowly that I could hardly detect that they were moving. They suddenly made a mad dash for me. I tried to run, but the _infernal _Commander appeared on-scene and whisked me up.

"Spyro!" I yelled, trying to fight the Commander. But no matter how much I struggled, I couldn't break free. He was holding me so tightly that I couldn't turn my head and blast an element into his face.

"CRYSTAL!" Spyro cried. He tried to make his way over to me, but every time he moved, the Soldiers jumped in front of him and slowed him down.

"Let go of me, you... you!" I fought harder, but I couldn't break the Commander's tight grip.

"Quite the vocabulary," he said sarcastically.

When he spoke, he loosened up a little. I bit his arm as a retort.

"Ouch! Little..." the Commander trailed off and roughly clouted me on the head. I fell still then, thrown into a daze from the strike. By the time I shook myself out of it, the Commander had carried me to an area where the hole in the ceiling was largest. A Dreadwing, with a screech, landed in the room.

"Take her to Cynder," the Commander snarled to the Leader riding the Dreadwing.

"No! Spyro, help!" I yelled. In hindsight, that was a silly thing to say. Spyro was way on the other side of the room, still trying to push the Soldiers away. There was nothing he could do, nobody to help me.

Spyro managed to get into the air and flew over to us, but the Commander knocked him away. The Soldiers dragged him the rest of the way down.

"Leave the boy," the Commander said to the Soldiers that were holding Spyro down. His eyes were flashing like fire. "It's _her _we want."

The Dreadwing, with another ear-piercing screech, took off into the air. The Commander tossed me into the air and the Dreadwing's talons took a fast hold on my body.

"Spyro! Sparx!" I yelled, but it was no use. I watched them slowly begin to fade into the distance as the Dreadwing carrying me flew farther and farther away, scrunching me in its talons.

Spyro glared at the Commander and shook the Soldiers off him. In one leap he had crossed the room. Electricity shout out of his maw, stunning the Commander, and Spyro proceeded to claw him and breathe a burst of fire. The Commander tried to fight back, swinging his staff about blindly, but Spyro dodged all of the attacks.

It was not long until the Commander fell, dropping to his knees so that he was just above eye-level with Spyro. The Commander grinned and laughed weakly, his voice ragged. Then he fell, bloody fur painting the floor with streaks of red, and life left him.

"Come on, Sparx," Spyro turned away and prepared to take off, "We've got to go after her!"

"She's not even in sight anymore. You'll never be able to catch her. We've lost her," Sparx said sadly.

"Well not for long," Spyro growled. He charged forward into the next room of the fort, intending to clear out each and every Soldier in the area.

~~...~~

"Ouch!" I cried as the Dreadwings talons squeezed, its claws digging into my flesh. I tried to struggle, but that only caused the claws to dig in deeper.

I had yelled just about everything I could think of: insults, threats, and cries for help alike. I tried to breathe fire or electricity, but getting kicked by the Dreadwing was the only thing that happened when I did so. I soon halted that plan of action.

"You best be quiet. Cynder is displeased with you. But I'm sure she'll find a way for you to make up for it." The Leader riding the Dreadwing cackled evilly and snapped the reins on the Dreadwing. The Dreadwing cried out and flew faster.

I looked down, but I felt queasy upon seeing the clouds rushing by and looked back up again.

"You're despicable," I spat, but it was no use and didn't even elicit a reply.

Another Dreadwing flew down beside us. A Leader sat on it, but this one's fur was dark brown instead of the pale white of the one who was steering that Dreadwing I was under.

"So, what's this one for?" the second Leader yelled.

"Ah, Cynder wants the girl for something. Probably as _bait._"

The second Leader chuckled."You could tell just by lookin' at 'im. That boy will be lured right straight to Cynder, mark my words."

"The girl ain't gonna stand a chance against Cynder," the first Leader agreed.

"Crystal," I said, pondering my options.

"What?"

"Crystal. My _name _is Crystal." I couldn't see the first Leader, as I was being held under the Dreadwing.

"Well, _Crystal, _you better listen to Cynder and do as she says, or you won't make it through the hour."

"Why do you want me?" I demanded.

"I already said, as bait for that other dragon."

"Why not Spyro?" I would have never offered Spyro in place of me. I was just wondering.

"The boy? How should I know? She ordered us to bring _you _to her and we're bringin' _you _to her."

"She shoulda asked for the boy. He stands a chance at actually getting past the lower ranks. If Cynder had just made us steal him instead, then this girl woulda have got killed out there and Cynder could just finish the boy off. Stupid move," the second Leader said, clipping the reins viciously. "I just don't see what Malefor sees in 'er. A female leading us is bad luck, I tell you. It'll be the downfall of the Dark Armies."

"You lest watch your tongue, Jayred Iceheart! Cynder hears ya talkin' like that and she'll cut it out!" the Leader warned.

"What Cynder ain't know ain't gonna hurt me," Jayred said with an annoyed snort.

"Cynder has her reasons, anyway," the Leader continued. His only reply was a grunt from Jayred.

"Here's the tower; let's just drop the girl off so I can resume my patrol," he said.

I had little time to contemplate this conversation, for the Dreadwing swooped down almost immediately. It dropped me before it landed, and the fall hurt so much that I couldn't even get to my feet before some Soldiers ran over. They dragged me to my feet, snapped a metal collar around my neck, and hooked a chain to it, which they used to yank me along.

I resisted, pulling back and digging my paws into the ground, but I couldn't break free. Besides, they hit me whenever I didn't follow peacefully. Again, I decided waiting for an opportune moment was probably the best idea.

I was 'escorted' up the tower. As we climbed the tall, curving stairs, I had time to think. What did Cynder want with me? Why did she want _me _instead of Spyro? What would she be like? I felt dizzy and frightened.

My thoughts were interrupted again. Jayred, about halfway up, relieved a Soldier who had been holding the chain and was with me now. We stopped in front of a door, made out of the same metal as the rest of the tower. The door opened and I was shoved roughly into the room on the other side.

"You better have a good reason for interrupting me!" I heard a female say angrily. I squinted at the shadow on the other side of the room, but I couldn't quite make it out.

"Yes... of course. We have the girl," Jayred said.

"For the last time, my name is _Crystal!_" I exclaimed, annoyed. I didn't like being referred to as just 'girl'.

A black dragon emerged from the shadows. She was much taller than I was, and older. She had eight ivory-coloured horns, the tallest ones on the top of her head. Her underbelly and tattered wing membrane was red, and her eyes were a duller rust red. She was wearing steel bands around her neck, forelegs, and tail. Finally, the end of her wings and tail had scythes on them.

A chill ran down my back. This was Cynder... she was even more frightening than I had imagined. I was facing Ignitus' and many other's nightmare, looking right into those cold, unfeeling eyes...

...That were green. For just a split second, her eyes were green. I blinked and shook it off, dismissing it as a trick of the light.

_If you encounter Cynder, run. You aren't ready to face her yet. _Ignitus' words echoed in my head. He was right. I wasn't ready. What was I to do now? I couldn't run—I wouldn't be able to get past the Soldiers. I wouldn't be able to fight Cynder alone, either. I could only stare up at Cynder, fear coursing through me like the electricity had and leaving me paralyzed.

The door slammed shut behind me. A small, barred window the only light source left. Jayred remained standing in the corner of the room and I could feel his gaze on me. I tried to look undaunted on the outside.

"So... you're one of the purple dragons. You're not very much, are you, little one?" Cynder asked.

I felt anger bubble up, but I wisely pushed it back down. I stared silently at Cynder, tried to stare her down.

_Stupid, _I thought, _Staring won't do you any good if she takes the notion to kill you._

Cynder began to pace around me. I kept my gaze fixated on where she had been standing, although when she paused behind me, I looked out of the corner of my eyes. I felt uneasy.

"Why did you come here? Who sent you?" Cynder demanded.

"We're just passing through," I replied steadily. Although I sounded calm enough, my heart was pounding.

"And you take out half of the legions stationed here?"

"...They were in our way."

Cynder laughed shortly and continued circling until she was in front of me again.

"Cut it out. I know Ignitus sent you. Where is he?"

I remained silent.

"Where is Ignitus?"

I quavered slightly. Her gaze was piercing. She was staring _me _down! It was as if her eyes were fighting me... and beating me. I managed to break the gaze and looked away.

"I asked you a question." The voice no longer contained its coolness. It was an angry snarl now. "Where is Ignitus?!"

I was suddenly seized with a burst of boldness. I met Cynder's gaze defiantly. "Who's Ignitus?" I asked.

Cynder knocked me away with a sweep of her arm. I hit the wall roughly. My head was pounding and was vision wavered. I had hit my head _hard_.

"Just feed her to the Dreadwings. She's not going to talk. I can see that now," Cynder snarled at Jayred. She was obviously irritated.

My eyes widened in fear. What if Spyro didn't come fast enough?

Jayred grabbed the chain that was holding me and led me out of the room. We began the descent down the stairs.

"Eh, Crystal," Jayred whispered to me after we had gone about halfway down.

"What do youwant?" I growled.

"To help you. That brother of yours is gonna be rammin' down the place any minute now. I'm gonna let you go... and you don't kill me."

"I couldn't kill you anyway now. What if it's a trap?" I asked dubiously, glaring at Jayred.

"You're in chains and about to be Dreadwing food. How is it gonna be a trap?" Jayred asked irately.

"...You're right," I said reluctantly.

"Now, go. I'll distract Cynder." Jayred unsnapped the chain from around my neck and headed up the stairs.

"But, wait. Why are you helping me?" I asked. But he was already gone.

I walked down the stairs. I was led to believe they, the creatures (who I realized I still didn't have a general name for) were all evil... but maybe... maybe not. Perhaps they had some good in them. Maybe a little bit. Just a little bit.

Out emerged onto the battlefield to find the battle was already over. Dead Dreadwings and slain Soldiers littered the field. I could see the fort in the distance, to the left, and another smashed bridge to the right. Sparx was hiding behind a pot, so I figured Spyro had used Fury.

I walked up behind him. He was facing away from me, staring out over another icy pit. "Ahem," I said, clearing my throat.

Spyro spun around and nearly choked me in a hug. "Crystal! You're okay! " he exclaimed, about blowing out my eardrums.

"Spyro..." I gasped, "you're choking... your sister!"

Spyro let go. "Sorry," he said with a relieved smile. I smiled back.

"Glad to have you back in the party... What happened?" Spyro asked, leading me and Sparx (who had come back out) across the field.

"They took me to Cynder..." I couldn't help the shiver that came over me.

"You okay?"

"Ah, I got smacked around a little bit, but otherwise, I'm okay." Lie. I was so terrified that I was caving in on the inside.

"We're you _scared?" _Sparx asked in a playful, taunting tone.

"Pfft. I don't know the meaning of fear," I said loudly.

A large Dreadwing landed behind me, shaking the ground as it did so. It let out an ear-piercing scream that caused my blood to run as cold as the ice.

"Fear: a state of terror. AAAH!" I jumped behind Spyro. I was still terrified from my recent encounter with Dreadwings. I would never forget how painful their claws could be.

Spyro easily threw the Dreadwing off the edge with electricity. "You don't know the meaning of fear, huh?" he asked with a smug grin.

"Let's go, Spyro," I said flatly, scowling.

Spyro nodded, all serious again. We had reached the bridge area and the camp near it by now. Spyro turned and walked over to the door of Cynder's tower. He proceeded to try to smash it open. I was going to open my mouth to tell him off, but Sparx spoke before me.

"Why don't we head this way, genius?" He pointed to a small cave directly across from the door. Spyro looked at me, shrugged, and followed Sparx into the cave.

I looked around warily. The ceiling was low and it was cramped, but it looked like just the place Volteer would be hidden. Small, unimposing cave... who would ever think to look there? Except for Sparx, of course, who I found to be extremely smart in the art of finding hidden areas.

"Hey, Sp—Oh, check this out," Sparx whispered, beckoning us inside. "Echo!" Sparx yelled, his voice bouncing off the walls.

I laughed, the gleeful noise bouncing around like a frogweed before drifting back lazily.

Everybody jumped as an rage-filled roar filled the air. Spyro and Sparx looked around frantically, but I knew the source of the noise as soon as I had heard it. Something told me Jayred Iceheart had kept his promise, even if it may have cost him his life.

"Thank you," I whispered. I hoped, somehow, he would know.

"Huh?" Spyro asked, looking at me and cocking his head.

"Nothing... My turn. Wooo!" I yelled, laughing as my voice echoed. I allowed Jayred to fade from my mind.


	17. Volteer Is Rescued

We continued along the long and increasingly cramped tunnel, yelling out whatever we could think of and laughing at the echo it made.

"Alright, my turn. HELLOOOO!" Spyro called, just as we reached the end of the tunnel.

I looked down. The floor was a few feet below us. The room below was all ice. The walls were made of ice, the ceiling, with stalactites hanging from it, was made of ice... Even the floor was made out of ice, which wasn't going to be very pleasant to walk on. But, the most important thing here was the Leader and some Soldiers, all clustered in the middle.

"Hello," the Leader said, grinning. My heart leapt up into my throat.

"Who's the genius now, echo man?" Spyro asked Sparx.

We jumped from the tunnel's edge and glided down, circling the crowd of Soldiers and the Leader. When he landed, Spyro rammed the latter into the wall. Ducking a swipe, I released bouts of flame onto the Soldiers. Spyro took out the others with his electricity breath. It didn't take us long to kill them all.

How I hated the slippery _ice _stuff. I still was not steady on it, and I kept falling, wasting time as I failed to stand. I was like a newborn animal, unable to stay on my own four feet without help. After a fourth failure, I groaned, stood and tried something else. Instead of walking, I _skated._

The thing about skating is that you never walk, you slide. Pushing back on the ice with my paws then letting my legs go slack, I managed to travel by ice successfully. Mission accomplished.

I shivered once I reached Spyro. It was a little warmer in here, but my breath still puffed out in front of me. We made our way to the tunnel on the other side of the room, that led to... well, wherever it led to. Volteer, I hoped.

Good, hard ground greeted us in the tunnel, as well as groups of Spirit Gems lining either side of the wall. I hit a red Spirit Gem and sighed with relief as the dull throb coming from my wounds ebbed. Next, I absorbed a green Spirit Gem, replenishing my magical energy. I felt much better then.

I took a running—or more like slipping, as the ice had returned—start and headed to the large expanse of room in front of me. In the middle of the room was an island of ice and, in part, snow. A few natural pillars were dotted throughout it. Surrounding it was a bottomless pit. At the far end of the room was a large statue depicting an ice warrior sitting on a throne. I eyed the room warily, but flew into it anyway, using my new-found skill to navigate.

It took me a second to notice him. Laying on a rock near the statue was an unconscious dragon. It had to be Volteer.

"Hey, that's him. We did it. Bye," Sparx said quickly.

"I don't like this. It's too quiet. Too easy," Spyro said, walking forward slowly. He glanced at the statue every few seconds.

"Wha—ea—what part was easy? Getting chased by frozen madmen and... gorillas?" Sparx asked, flying up to the statue and turning around to look back at us.

Suddenly, the statue began to move. The movement was mechanical at first; the statue pulled its arm free of ice. Then the movements were more fluid as blood began to run through stiff veins. That statue, I realized, was not a statue at all!

"Uh, Sparx?" Spyro asked, eyes widening and pupils becoming so tiny I could hardly see them.

Sparx didn't even turn around. "Is that what I think it is?" he squeaked.

It was a "giant frozen madman", as Sparx would put it. It looked just like the rest of the ice warriors, but... bigger. He was at least three times the size of me, and much wider. This Ice King was wearing black armour that was accented and outlined by dull red. His shield was made of pure ice, and the two tall horns that stuck out of his head were made of ice as well. His skin was green and was decayed and his eyes glowed with the same colour. He wielded a cleaver, also made of ice, and, finally, had a black cape that matched his armor.

Gulp.

"Aaaaaaaahhh!" Sparx yelled, flying back over to us, and just in the nick of time. The Ice King roared and jumped off of his throne. Spiderweb cracks shot out along the ice near the area where he had landed. I knew there was a fight coming, and I was not happy about it.

"You've _got _to be kidding me," Spyro and I said in unison.

We figured the best way to go about this was to fight ice with fire. Fireballs flew through the air and hit their mark. The Ice King was not daunted by this flurry of flame, though.

The battle was very fast-paced; I was dodging swipes from the Ice King's cleaver, shooting out fireballs, and dashing over the the green Spirit Gems at the edge of the room whenever I could. But the enemy never got tired, never became drained, unlike me. I exhausted my powers easily, but this creature didn't have elements to exhaust.

Becoming tired of dodging about, I did an impulsive thing. I circled around the Ice King and leapt onto his back, then breathed fire onto his shield, melting and destroying it. The Ice King, having had enough, grabbed me and threw me off him.

I landed on the ice. My heart jumped into my throat as I slid rapidly along it. I dug my claws into it in an attempt to slow myself down and immediately regretted it.

_Screeeeeeeeech! _The noise produced by the combination of claws and ice was awful, but I gritted my teeth and bore it. It was either that or fly right off the edge.

Much to my relief, I began to slow down. Not believing my luck, I climbed to shaky feet, only to see that Spyro nearly had the Ice King beat.

The colossal ice warrior got all shieldy. By that, I mean he used magic to surround himself in a blue bubble that deflected our attacks and prevented us from getting close to him. He stomped the ground, and icicles fell from the ceiling.

"Ow!" I yelled as my arm was pinned by one of the icicles. The Ice King took that as a chance to conjure up some more and shoot them high-speed at me.

Upon seeing the sharp disasters flying towards me, I yelped and tried to pull my arm free. I finally thought to yank the icicle out of the ground and stepped out of danger's way just in time.

Meanwhile, Spyro had blasted the Ice King right off his feet. He tried to use his cleaver to stand up, placing the handle on the ground and attempting to push himself to his feet. He failed at this.

I noticed now the Ice King had lost some of his armor, and there was no flesh on his right leg, only bone. His left shoulder was fleshless as well. After a few seconds, the Ice King dropped his cleaver and pushed himself up on his own. He got to his feet and regained his steady posture.

I inhaled, about to breathe fire, but I was cut off by the Ice King breathing out a strange mist. There was no warning. When it hit me, I was frozen solid. I don't remember quite what it was like because I was only in the ice encasing for a moment. I had the feeling that I should be breathing but couldn't. My vision was heavily distorted and so was my hearing.

Spyro came right after the cold set in. He breathed fire on me, just enough to thaw me out. I gasped in air, cold, sweet air. I shook myself off and was ready to go.

I noticed the Ice King had lost his should pads, exposing his weak point. I hopped on him again and bit down on his neck. I was somewhat surprised at myself. It was instinct that told me that the throat was the vital life area, but I had never really known instinct before. I had lived a shielded life... I suppose it had always been there, but I had just never got to use it.

I hopped off the Ice King's shoulder as he dropped to his knees, raising his hands up to the sky as life began to fade from him. He fell, hit the ice with a thud, and went limp.

I relaxed now that the Ice King was dead and glanced over at Volteer, who was conscious and had likely witnessed the later part of the battle.

He was mainly a lightning-yellow color with blue shoulders, wing membrane and underbelly. He had a brighter jagged marks on the back of his neck and a lightning shaped tail tip. His eyes, matching the colour pattern, were fairly dancing with excitement. Spyro and I walked over to him, but before either of us could speak, he did.  
"It borders on the miraculous, incredible, stupendous! Two dragons your size defeating that—that thing! Thank you... ah... uh... um..."

He spoke so quickly that my head was spinning just after that first sentence. Nonetheless, I somehow managed to answer, and Spyro as well.

"Crystal."

"Spyro."

"_Two_ purple dragons named Spyro and Crystal. Amazing. Of course there were unsubstantiated rumors of a purple dragon countless generations ago, but most considered it hearsay, gossip, legend. It's hard to believe, difficult to fathom, amazing to comprehend... er... um..." Volteer paused in thought.

"No wonder they gagged this guy," Sparx whispered to us.

"So much time has passed, so many things have been learned, and now, here they are, standing right before me," Volteer continued, after collecting his thoughts.

"Excuse me, Mr. Volt?" Sparx asked.

"Wha—wha—what is it?"

"Sir, should... shouldn't we get going?"

"Oh, of course, but where to?"

"Back to the Temple," I said.

"A friend of yours is waiting?" Sparx said, his voice containing a questioning tone.

"Ignitus?!" Volteer exclaimed.

"Yes, Ignitus," Sparx said, exasperated.

"Of course, much to tell him, many hypotheses to pose. I believe that Cynder seemed to be using me as an over-powered electricity device," Volteer explained—or more like _tried _to explain, as I was not following at all—as we headed for the exit.

~~...~~

"Yes, yes Volteer, it's good to see you as well, but we don't have time to waste on sentiment. Back to Cynder... She was doing _what _to you?" Ignitus interrupted Volteer after I gave him a plaintive 'help me' look.

Volteer had been talking and talking and talking all the way from Dante's Freezer to the Temple. I'm sure he meant well, but I had a headache and couldn't comprehend most of what he was saying anyway.

"Cynder's a chick?" Sparx wondered aloud. As usual, he was ignored.

"Well it's hard to be absolutely sure, Ignitus. But it seems she was using me as some sort of suspended organic power source," Volteer explained.

"Huh?" Sparx asked, turning to Spyro.

"She was using him as a battery," Spyro said.

"Why didn't he just say so?"

"Not only that, but she also left with a golden yellow ball, and I believe that I somehow powered it. Does this mean anything to you, Ignitus?" Volteer continued.

"Perhaps... perhaps. What I do know is that we need to rescue the other Guardians, before Cynder can power any more of those orbs," Ignitus said.

I sighed. Here we go again. We had only been gone a few hours, but I was already tired. Oh, well. I would have plenty of time to rest later. This was much more important.

"I agree, Ignitus. But first I'd like to impart some useful knowledge to Spyro and Crystal, vis-a-vis their recently acquired escalation device," Volteer said.

"What?" Sparx asked, blinking.

"He says he'd like to teach us some things about that electricity breath," Spyro explained.

"Oy! Why doesn't he just say so?!"


	18. Brief Respite

Spyro, Sparx, and I followed Volteer to the training room and waited for the large statue to sink into the ground. I wanted to get to wherever we were going to go! I wanted to go on another adventure, and hopefully this one wouldn't be so... depressing.

"Electricity, the spark of life. Listen and I will teach you its secrets," Volteer said. "Your electricity breath is capable of paralyzing various entities, leaving them vulnerable. At this point, you can basically control their movements. Try demonstrating this with these dummies."

Easy enough. I had already learned this myself. All I had to do was just keep breathing electricity, turn your head, and they would go flying.

"You grasp the concept. Excellent!" Volteer praised. "Now, strength is without a doubt not the most essential aspect of combat. Speed is important as well. If you possess both, then you will be nearly undefeatable. Try chasing down and eliminating these dummies."

Easy enough. I still hated this part of training, but it wasn't as bad as before. It was easy to catch up to the dummies, and easier still to kill them, as electricity had a very long reach. Spyro and I skidded to a stop when the last dummy fell.

"You're a great study after all. This time, instead of breathing out electricity immediately, let it charge up. At this point, it will make an arc rather than a burst. This arc can home in on targets," Volteer said.

Spyro and I did what Volteer instructed. I allowed to electricity to charge and breathed it out. The arc flew through the air quicker than quick, turned abruptly, and hit the dummy. Easy.

"Learning is useless without facts. Well done. This time, chase down the dummies, but defeat them with arcs of electricity rather than with simple bursts."

Easy? No. The first time around, we ran out of time when we used controlled bursts. So the second time, Spyro got it into his head that throwing random, homing arcs of electricity would help.

Uh-uh.

Spyro let out an arc of electricity, and instead of homing in on a dummy, it homed in on _me. _I was sent flying and tumbling around, the sparks of electricity prickling through me like sharp needles. I screamed and landed on the ground with a thump, dizzy and in pain. I thought the terrible pricking of electricity would never end.

As soon as I could regain my bearings, I turned on Spyro with a yell of his name. He ran. I shot an arc at him and he was sent tumbling around wildly. As soon as he landed he jumped up, furious. Now it was my turn to run. The timer had long expired. We didn't care. We shot arcs around like there was no tomorrow, completely forgetting about training. Right now it was time for shocking each other.

Volteer didn't even try to stop the fight. I guess he figured that it wouldn't accomplish anything and there was no point in trying to break us up. Sparx, of course, didn't even go near us.

Eventually, Spyro won the fight. I had backed down after being shocked in rapid succession. It was a wonder neither of us were dead. I scowled and informed Volteer impassively that we had calmed down and were ready to try again. I shot a side glare at the triumphant Spyro.

Though irritated with each other, we still worked together to finish the lesson. We hit a middle-ground, that is, we didn't send arcs of electricity everywhere nor control it too much. Using a place somewhere between that, it was easy to finish.

"Ignitus will be pleased," Volteer said weakly.

Now, we were instructed simply to find our inner electricity and use Fury on the attacking dummies. I knew what I was looking for this time. I could do this.

We fought off hordes of dummies, that progressed from the smaller ones resembling Soldiers to the larger ones as big as Leaders. I knew when I was ready, as I always did. Like the well I mentioned earlier to describe my mana power, this was very similar. When I had enough power to Fury, I felt it... I just knew.

As I lifted off the ground, I felt that sparky tingling again. I concentrated on drawing out that small spark and empowering it. Coaxing it along, feeding it power, I managed to pull it out. I opened my eyes. Storm clouds and electricity that came from them were all around me. I closed them again and Spyro and I released all of our energy. There was a hum that progressed into a roar, followed by an explosion of volts. I opened my eyes when I had finished and dropped back onto the ground. The annihilated dummies faded.

"Your training is complete! ...For now."

~~...~~

"Spyro, Crystal... Cyril, the Ice Guardian, has been taken to Tall Plains," Ignitus told us. We were gathered around the Pool of Visions again. "You and Sparx must go there at once... and find him."

"Yes, sir," Spyro said.

I didn't mind going on one adventure after the other. I was a little tired, but the cold had snapped me right awake and the training made me excited to get out there again.

"So, when we see danger we should run, right?" Sparx chimed in. I shot him an annoyed glare, but he didn't seem to notice.

"There are times when all of us have to stand up to danger, young Sparx," Ignitus said after a short pause.

"Yeah, maybe next month, next summer, perhaps next year."

"Just go... _now!" _Ignitus said in an exasperated tone.

"Yes, sir!" I answered, specifically so Spyro couldn't. I immediately stood and took off towards the door, blissfully unaware that Spyro was glaring after me.

~~...~~

Spyro and I touched down on a floating island. We had arrived at Tall Plains, after a good thirty-minute flight. The moment I touched the grass, Ignitus' voice rang through my head. I still was not going to ask how he did that.

"Tall Plains was once home to a proud, ancient tribe called... the Atlawa," he said.

"Oh, bless you," Sparx said aloud.

"Sparx..." I growled, annoyed at him already for the stunt he pulled.

* * *

I was flying along, enjoying the sight of the great ocean. It was a little more harsh than when we had set out to Dante's Freezer a few hours ago; the ripples were gone, replaced with rocking waves. But then...

"It's a DREADWING!" Sparx yelled.

"AAAAAH!" I screeched. I immediately closed my wings and dive-bombed into the water.

A moment later, I resurfaced, coughing and gagging. I had accidentally swallowed some of the bitter sea water, and it had also gotten into my now-stinging eyes.

I looked up at the sky, expecting to see a Dreadwing flying above me, but I only saw Sparx laughing so hard he had to hang onto Spyro to keep from falling. Spyro was glaring at Sparx, but even from there I could see the small flicker of amusement in his eyes. I was thoroughly irritated. Ever since the whole Cynder thing, I had Dreadwingaphobia, and that was _not _funny.

"When I get out of here, you are _so _dead, Sparx!" I yelled. I tried to jump out of the water and get back into the air, but the ocean's weight dragged me back down and no matter how much I jumped, I couldn't get out.

Luckily, there was a shallow reef nearby. When I jumped and took off, the reef left a few cuts on my feet, but nothing serious. As soon as I was in the air, I went after Sparx.

* * *

"The Atlawa are people in tune with the rhythms of the seasons, focused on their relationships to crops, their surroundings, their gods. But they've all been driven underground by Cynder and her forces. They have taken over the tribe's shrine. I sense that's where Cynder is keeping Cyril, trying to power another crystal. You must find him before she succeeds," Ignitus continued, before going silent.

"Right. It's never easy," Sparx muttered.

"Nothing worthwhile ever is," Spyro said, giving the area a quick once-over.

"So now you're spouting wisdom, hero boy?"

Spyro scoffed lightly, pretending to be offended. "Come on."

As I passed Sparx, I smacked him with my tail and grinned as he went flying. He deserved that one.

I examined my surroundings. It was quite beautiful. I was standing on a small floating island. Before me were two more, and then the biggest main island opened out. The whole place was high in the air, so high that I couldn't see the sea nor the island far below. The whole place was, amazingly, _floating. _The grass in the area was the lushest green I had ever seen, an indescribable hue. Wild flowers and berry-yielding bushes were scattered about.

There was a thick forest directly forward, on an area that was raised a foot or three above the ground, and these strange stone blocks were scattered everywhere. Some were sticking partway out of the grass, and others were stacked neatly. Upon closer examination, I noticed that the blocks had faces on them depicting various emotions. Finally, there were a few fences along the rim, probably to stop people from accidentally tumbling off—I kept far away from the edge after that thought—and a tunnel, in the western part of the island, was cut in a hill and bordered with stone.

I wondered what was in store for us as I glided forward, onto the main island, and walked towards the entrance. Near the hole was a puddle, which I glanced at. I groaned inwardly as I saw the Soldier blood stain was still on my head, albeit a bit less noticeable as it had faded.

_Will it ever come off?_


	19. Momentary Panic

I walked up to the stone archway. It was quite well-polished, literally and metaphorically. It shone with a painstaking newness, and was very well-made besides. As I entered the doorway, I saw a Soldier's tail disappear around a corner as its owner scurried away.

"Something tells me we're about to meet the new tribe," I said, more to myself than to Spyro and Sparx.

We came to a hall, completely natural. The ceiling was made of dirt, the floor was made of dirt, and the walls were, indeed, made of dirt. On either side of the hall were two raised areas, dotted with stone pots and more of those face blocks, among other things. Grass grew wildly all about, and only the occasional open area let in sunlight.

I could see the Soldier at the end of the hallway. I ran and dived for him. I missed. He had already rounded the bend to the next hallway. Spyro jumped onto the scene and repeated my actions, but with more success. The Soldier went down a split second after he had called his friends to the scene.

I ran through the natural halls, and dived for the Soldier that was at the end of it. I missed. Three Soldiers and a Leader bounded around the corner.

"We're gonna have to fight them anyway, right?" Sparx asked, shrugging.

"_We?" _I asked, glaring at him and rolling my eyes. I electrocuted the Leader while Spyro hit the Soldiers. It was an easy fight, taking less than two minutes of our time.

I sighed and stepped over the dead corpses, continuing down the long, grassy stretch of hall. Something appeared in my peripheral vision. I turned to see what it was, and was greeted with the hollow trunk of a great tree. It seemed to be some sort of makeshift ramp/tunnel combination. I approached it, tested it with a foot to be sure it wouldn't break under my weight, and walked forward.

Through the tunnel I went, each step I took making an echoing thud. I stepped off into a clearing. There was no ceiling, and sun beat down on us, its wild light dancing freely about. I looked around, taking in the sights. Flowers grew in abundance here, brightly contrasting with the browns and greens. There was another tree tunnel, but I ignored that for now. The most notable feature were four little stone squares that stuck just out of the ground. Hmm. I walked over to one, curious, and tried to see what it was for.

Suddenly, about eight Soldiers literally appeared out of nowhere. I swear they rose from the ground. One tackled me, causing me to fall over and cry out. I breathed fire on impulse, trying to break myself from the grip of the Soldier. Big mistake.

"RUN!" I screamed, diving into the tree tunnel.

The fire I had started spread quickly—so quickly, in fact, that Spyro and Sparx almost didn't make it out. Just as they scrambled into the tunnel with me, the whole fire just swept right over the little clearing-room. I breathed a sigh of relief and walked back into the charred, blackened area. At least the trunks hadn't caught on fire.

"Jumpy, much? Ow!"Spyro yelled as I hit him in the arm. He glared at me.

"No. I'm just afraid that if Cynder catches me, she'll be more thorough with her interrogation. She said she knew I wasn't going to talk—she asked me where Ignitus was and why we were at Dante's Freezer—but I think she's angry that I got away alive." I walked to the middle of the room, followed by Spyro. I stared contemplatively at the ground and continued. "Do you know what will happen to me if these things catch me? Bad things, Spyro." I turned.

I happened to glance up at a cliff on the wall I was facing. There was nothing much there, just a Leader throwing dynamite at us.

Wait...

DYNAMITE! I dragged Spyro away from one of the explosive red sticks, as there wasn't time to warn him. We barely escaped the blast.

"C'mon, Spyro, let's get out of here," I said hurriedly.

I ran towards the tree trunks, but in my haste tripped right over a switch. It was in all aspects except for size identical to a face block.

"Oh?" I mused, pushing the switch down. I jumped and turned when one of the blocks in the ground began to rumble. Dust kicked up around it, and a moment later it raised out of the ground with a sound of stone scraping on stone.

I wasn't sure what that did, but in any case, the switches were there for a reason. Spyro and I exchanged glances and headed for the tree trunks. There had to be at least three more blocks around here somewhere.

"Spyro? Which one did we come through?" I asked, looking between one tree branch and the next. They were both identical, and I had lost my sense of direction in the fire.

"Uh... I thought you knew," Spyro replied.

"Ohh, no you don't! You are not pinning this on me this time!"

"Wha—pi—what do you mean by that?!"

"You always blamed it on me for getting lost in the swamp!"

"It was your idea to go out in the first place!"

Spyro and I were famous in our arguments for completely changing the subject in the middle of it.

"Don't say you didn't have a part in it! Didn't he have a part in it, Sparx?" I demanded, turning to the very confused dragonfly.

"I'm not getting involved in this," Sparx said, flying backwards.

"At least I don't get both of us lost every time we go somewhere." Spyro rolled his eyes. "If I had let you lead in Dante's Freezer, we would have been stuck somewhere in the arctic desert."

"Hey, you take that back!" I exclaimed, offended.

"It's the truth," Spyro said mildly.

"I said, take it back!"

"You take it back!"

"Take _what_ back?"

"I don't know, just take it back!"

"You're just jealous that I can fight without breaking down!" I was referring to the scene at Dante's Freezer.

"_Obviously._"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"I don't know, why don't you ask _Cynder?"_

I gasped and my mouth hung open. What was he implying!? "If that's the way you feel, then I'll just rescue Cyril myself!" I spat.

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Wonderful!"

"Whimsical!" I set off in one tunnel with an annoyed 'hmph!' and Spyro set off in the other.

"Aw, guys, come on," Sparx complained, hovering between the two logs and looking like a lost puppy, unsure who to follow.

"When I turn up dead, that'll show him," I grumbled, walking up the log with more force in my footsteps than necessary. I reached the top, only to realize it was the one I had come from originally.

"Dang it, Spyro," I muttered under my breath. Just then, a cry pierced the air. "SPYRO!" I yelled.

My petty anger forgotten, I bounded down the log I had just climbed up and into the log Spyro left in. I found Spyro unconscious, with a poisoned dart in his side. My gaze shot over to the wall, where I saw a dart-shooter, then to the ground where a pressure pad was.

"S-S-Sp..." I stuttered, unable to get out the word. I pulled the dart out and put my paw over the wound in an attempt to stop the blood flow. That dart had stuck him good.

"Crystal?" Spyro asked, his voice slurred as if he were half-asleep. One eye opened slightly.

"It's alright, Spyro. You're with your family." Sparx hovered behind me, wordless, but I knew he was just as anxious as I was.

I sighed with relief. Spyro wasn't dead and I was glad. I'm not sure what would happen if he died. There was some sort of strange link between us—after all, we could read each other's thoughts. That was amazing in and of itself, but there was more. I had noticed that going too far away from Spyro triggered some sort of reaction... I would be filled with pain. It was like we were chained to each other. The point is, death for him... it could very well mean death for me. I hoped to never find out.

The agonizing minutes ticked by slowly. I felt as if I was sitting beside Spyro for days. I felt numb... I felt nothing. But then Spyro awoke, drowsy but more or less unharmed.

"What happened?" he asked, shaking his head as if to clear it and standing up.

"You got shot with a poisonous dart." I pointed to the pressure pad on the ground. "It must not have been lethal poison... All it did was put you to sleep. Sleeping poison was probably what it was."

"What?" Spyro looked at the ground and back to me.

I shook my head. "Nothing. Let's get going. Oh, and Spyro?"

"Yeah?"

"If you ever pull that again, I'll do you in myself."

Spyro laughed and continued forward.


	20. Kane

"Sorry, Spyro," I said, remembering I still had to apologize.

"For what?"

"For our fight...?"

"What fight?"

An evil grin slowly spread across my face. Why not spare me the loss? Apparently that dart's poison had amnesia as a side effect, and I should use that to my advantage.

"Oh... nothing..." I said, smiling sweetly. Spyro gave me a look, but said no more.

Spyro and I had climbed up a few more of the ever-common raised areas and were now on a cliff overlooking another room. A Soldier who was also here spotted us and jumped down with a single howl. I peered down over the ledge, but he was gone. Spyro and I exchanged glances—we had been doing that a lot lately, I noticed—but merely continued on.

There was another hollow tree in front of us, but this one acted as a bridge rather than a ramp. I ran through, but had to dive out of the way and hit the floor as an earth cannon on the other side began shooting darts at us.

Spyro ducked as well, but the moment the cannon ceased its shots, he ran forward. Through the air he soared, just as the cannon began to fire again, but not a single dart hit him. He knocked the Soldier controlling the cannon right out of his seat and over the edge of the cliff. And that was the end of that.

While Spyro was busy doing that, I sneaked over to a puddle in a final attempt to clean the aggravating blood stain off my forehead. I scrubbed vigorously at it using my paw, and to my relief, a few minutes of this caused the stain to completely fade.

"Finally. Let's go," I said, seeing that Spyro had just finished. I jumped over the edge and glided down.

Before us was a grand staircase, made of stone like everything else here. To our left was a dart trap and, forgive me if I'm not being very descriptive, a bunch of stuff lay beyond it.

"Where to?" Spyro asked.

"Let's go through the trap first," I said cheerily.

"Grrreat idea," Sparx said sarcastically, pointing to the Soldiers on the other side.

"Well we're going to have to go down there anyway," I muttered, mocking him.

I made my way over to the trap and cocked my head, studying its pattern for shooting. Top top, bottom bottom, top top, both both, pause. The pattern got reversed when it was completed. By observing this, I managed to easily weave my way through it. Deciding it was time for a humour break, I sat down leisurely and gave Spyro, who was still on the other side, an innocent look.

"What's wrong, purple boy, you can't make your way thwough a wittle twap?" I asked, mocking Spyro.

"I could make it through just as surely as there's Dreadwing behind you," Spyro replied calmly. I screamed and dove back through the trap, landing on the other side. I looked behind me and saw only a very confused Soldier.

"Spyro!" I growled, annoyed. I recklessly pushed him into the trap and somehow he ended up on the other side unharmed.

"Well, the Curse of Spyro's Klutziness didn't strike this time," I said, dashing through the trap again.

"It can only strike once every twenty-four hours," Spyro explained, killing the Soldier that had posed as a Dreadwing with a burst of fire.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"Because," Spyro said, walking into the room beyond the trap and hitting a switch in the corner, "I have the curse. You don't have the curse without knowing about it."

I rolled my eyes and looked around the room. Nothing of interest here. This was definitely a storeroom; pots and vases were scattered all over and weapons leaned on the walls. One sword had a dragon-like figure carved into the hilt. The switch Spyro had hit was hidden behind some pots and ferns.

Spyro and I walked over to the trap and waiting for it to stop. It only took a few seconds for it to do so, and we dashed through when it did. Sparx merely flew over it.

"Up?" I asked, approaching the stairs.

"You? Oh, please," Spyro rolled his eyes.

I punched his arm and climbed up the stairs. I didn't know what _that _was supposed to mean, but I didn't like it. When Spyro came up he punched me back. I punched him harder, then he tackled me, causing us to go flying down. I grudgingly climbed back up the stairs after grumbling about the bump on my head and glaring at Spyro.

We walked along in silence after that, sulking. This was just another tunnel, but I could see the way out on the right side, way at the end. My head snapped up as soon as we reached it, for I spotted something truly terrifying.  
Dreadwings.

Dreadwings, everywhere, swooping through the sky, their shadows washing over me, landing on handles that sat atop cages—wait. Cages. Yes, there were cages here, on the little floating islands before us, and llamas were in them. The was a small field level to us as well, with stick fences on the edge, and a few Spirit Gems. There were Soldiers here as well, a whole platoon, even.

Cowering and backing back into the security of the shadows, I watched as a Dreadwing holding a cage handle took off, carrying the llama inside to places unknown. Another Dreadwing followed. The llamas in the cages must have been the Atlawa.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Spyro, watching the Dreadwings soar through the sky and fly away.

"Does that mean what I think it does?" Sparx asked.

"W-we've gotta help them," I stuttered, afraid of the Dreadwings. I knew, though, I had to get over it—at least for now—and help the Atlawa before it was too late.

"Oh, brother," Sparx said, shaking his head.

"T-that's s-sister to you," I stated, running into the area.

I scanned the sky before running in. No Dreadwings, but I knew there would be one coming for the single Atlawa left. Spyro and I hopped into the small battlefield and used our electricity to throw Soldiers off the edge.

"AAAAH!" I screamed when a Dreadwing flew down and landed in front of me. I dived right into a bush. The leaves rattled in time to my own shaking.

Spyro, with a skeptical look towards the bush I hid in, also used electricity to throw the Dreadwing off the edge. Luckily, it fell onto its back when Spyro threw it, so there was no way it would be able to spread its wings and fly back up.

I peered out of the bushes. "Is it dead?" I whispered.

"Crystal, get out of there. We don't have time for this," Spyro said, rolling his eyes. I grudgingly followed his command.

We jumped up onto the island the last cage was on. A Soldier was here, which Spyro proceeded to ram into the Atlawa's cage, breaking one side. While he did this, I studied the creature inside. I had never seen a llama before, so I was fascinated.

The bipedal creature before me had thick white fur with the occasional grey, most notably on his chest and face. He wore blue and yellow cloth around his middle and leather gloves on his hands. The middle of his tail was furless but very bushy on the end, his rabbit-like long ears stuck out of the top of his head, and his feet were almost bird-like.

"Why don't you watch out?!" The Atlawa that was in the cage said, glaring at us with sky-blue eyes. He swung a bamboo staff that he had been holding for emphasis.

"I was just trying to help," Spyro said.

"The Atlawa and Kane need no help!" the llama—Kane—said.

"Oh, just about to spring into action, huh?" Spyro asked sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Forget this guy, you two, come on," Sparx said. Kane looked around, not noticing Sparx until that moment.

"What did they want with you, anyway?" Spyro and I asked together.

"That's none of your business. Now, move. I've got a tribe to save." Kane pushed past us and jumped down the cliffs, heading into the tunnel we had just left.

"Oh, you're welcome!" Sparx yelled after him, cupping his hands over his mouth to amplify the sound.

I was thoroughly irritated. How rude! I glided back down to the main island and walked back through where we had come. No sign of Kane. _Good._

Just to our right was a ledge, which we climbed up. Right in front of our noses was a switch. Spyro was about to push it, but I stopped him, noticing a dart trap in the wall and not wanting a repeat of Spyro's earlier performance.

"Let me handle this," I said. I stepped as far away from the switch as possible and quickly pushed it down, jerking my arm back the moment I did. The darts whizzed into the opposite wall unhindered and we were ready to continue.

"I think that's all of them. Come on let's take the short—uh-oh." I stopped in my tracks as I saw the Leader that had thrown dynamite at us earlier staring at us.

"The purple dragons," he said. "My, my, funny to see you here. You know, Cynder's in the area. I could get you to her before she leaves." A malicious grin spread across his face.

Spyro and I exchanged glances. I rolled my eyes at the Leader, and simultaneously we charged. The Leader, realizing his mistake (the mistake being standing right in front of a cliff), tried to get away. He failed. Spyro and I rammed into him, and with a terrific crash he hit the pillar in the middle of the area below, nearly toppling it. He fell to the ground, unconscious, and wordlessly I glided down and landed near him.

I looked at the cocky Leader and sighed. So far, every enemy had fallen before me. But if I miss a step or forget a single detail... I'll be gone, forever.


	21. Why in the World Would I Let Go?

All of the blocks were raised now, as I noted. I stopped near one to trace a claw over the yellow stone. It was so smooth.

Spyro and I climbed onto the first block, which was lowest off the ground. Each block pillar was raised a little higher than the one beside it. They all made a square-like shape, if you had connected the space between them. We made our way to the highest pillar.

I glanced down at the ground and regretted it. It was _way _down there. Gulping, I looked around, trying to find out where we were supposed to go. And that's when I noticed something.

The hollow log that led to the place we had entered had only wall above it. But the second log, which had led to Kane, had space. I could almost see another hallway. I glanced at Spyro, who was balanced precariously on the ledge (as was I) because there wasn't enough room for two on the pillar tops.

"Come on, Spyro! Follow me!" I cried, jumping into the air. I glided over to the log and turned to see that Spyro had spiraled out of control. He was going to miss the log. I reached out and managed to grab his paw just in time.

"Twenty-four hours, my tail," I said under my breath, pulling Spyro up onto the log.

We walked along the trunk for a bit until we reached the area with the hallway and hopped down into it. There was a path leading through the narrow room. Before anybody could move, some armadillos came rolling up to us, apparently not liking our presence. One of them rolled right into me, bowling me off my feet, and biting into my arm with tiny, dagger-sharp teeth.

"Ow!" I threw the armadillo off, causing him to roll into the other armadillo with such force that they both died. I grinned and high-fived Spyro before continuing to lead him and Sparx down the hallway.

Soon, the path lowered down a bit before ambling straight along into another hallway, as unmentionable as the last. A few armadillos appeared before us, but the weak creatures were easily defeated by a few fireballs that charred their hard hide black. Spyro and I only stopped now to break and absorb Spirit Gems.

Somehow, we felt... we were running out of time. Not to save Cyril, but for something else. There was something, I felt instinctively, that Ignitus wasn't telling us. That seemed silly, but I couldn't shake the thought, the look in his eyes when Volteer told him what Cynder had done. There was something _else, _something beyond rescuing the Guardians, and we were running out of time to do it.

I didn't have very much time to think. Once again, the path dropped down, but this time it literally just dropped. There was no incline, no hill, the path just ended and dropped down into the room below.

There were many Soldiers in the room, I saw, and I spotted a Leader mixed in with them. There were more lowered blocks, like the ones back at the start of Tall Plains, and there was a giant stone see-saw in the middle of the room. The grass here was unkempt and tall, so tall that if I had wander into it, I would not be able to see above the green ocean.

I made no move to jump into the room below. Instead, I breathed an electric arc at the Soldiers, who only noticed me just then. I jumped down when two went flying in the air, and quick as I wink, I was beside them. I hopped up and did a few aerial flips, hitting the two Soldiers at the same time, before knocking them away and allowing myself to float to the ground.

Spyro, meanwhile, had dived right into the fight. Soldiers went flying under his blows, but Spyro failed to see the Leader sneaking up behind him. I saw it too late.

The Leader swung his sword, hitting Spyro right in the head. Luckily, he hit him with the blunt end—clearing he wasn't aiming to kill Spyro, but to knock him out. He didn't succeed in either respects, for Spyro was up almost as soon as he went down.

Angry that this stupid creature dare attack my brother, I jumped up onto its shoulders. Quicker than a rattlesnake, I bit the Leader's neck and breathed volts of deadly electricity through the wound. The Leader squealed and dropped onto the ground. He writhed and thrashed about before dropping dead where he lay. Spyro, ever achieving, had killed the other three Soldiers while I had contended with the Leader.

We split up after this, looking for switches to raise the blocks within the tall grass. I decided to take the darker side of the area. There were sure to be some switches hidden there.

"Sparx, come with me. I need your light," I said to Sparx as I waded into the grass.

Sparx followed me, lighting the way. I got tangled in the grass many a time. It was as if the grass was the millions of arms of some sort of monster that lived under the earth. It sat waiting for somebody, specifically female purple dragons, to get caught in its arms, and they would drag her down... down...

_I don't have time for making up stories! _I thought to myself. There was a switch right in front of my face, but I was too busy imagining silly monsters to notice. Sighing, I pushed the switch and listened to the blocks raise out of the ground on the other side of the room. I walked forward a few steps.

"Hey, Spyro, did you—whoaaa!" Spyro had apparently found a switch, and I had been sitting on the blocks that it raised.

"Sorry, Crystal," I heard Spyro yell, and in a flash of purple, he was standing on the seesaw, having jumped onto the block that I raised.

I shrugged indifferently and jumped on Spyro's side of the see-saw. It immediately flipped into nearly a ninety-degree angle and I was on the ground the next second. Spyro was still clinging to the moss on the top, refusing to let go. I shook my head and jumped back on the seesaw, this time on the opposite side. The seesaw leveled out again.

"Keep your balance," I said, running for Spyro and flying to a cliff that held another hallway just past its edge. I glanced at a bewildered Spyro, who hurriedly leapt of the see-saw and flew for me. I shrugged again and turned the corner that led to the hallway.

This was a very dark and sinister passage indeed. Leaves were scattered over the ground and water dripped off of stalactites. Besides that, numerous Soldiers dotted it.

Spyro ran forward, but I suddenly got wind of what those leaves were for and tackled him before he could run over them. Impulsive as I was, there wasn't, like last time, time to warn him.

"What?" asked the annoyed Spyro.

"Look." I got off him and tapped the leaves. They disappeared in a flurry. Below the leaves was a pit, and in the pit were a lot of spiky bamboo tubes that likely would have killed him had he fallen into the pit.

"Oh."

"Yeah." I reached down into the pit and pulled one of the sharp poles out, putting it in my bag that I still had. Just in case.

I hopped over the next pile of leaves and tossed Soldiers into the pit with electricity. It was, at the moment, my favorite element. Electricity was just so convenient. Spyro had jumped ahead of me, and he threw a Soldier into the pit too.

Running ahead and leaping over the pits, I caught up, only to have an armadillo jump on me and start tearing at my face with those sharp teeth. I cried out and fell onto my back, trying to get the creature off but failing miserably. The next minute the armadillo was off and a very perplexed Spyro and Sparx were standing and hovering over me, respectively.

"You're bleeding..." Spyro said when I stood back up. I instinctively lifted a paw to my cut-up face. I must have looked awful, by the feel of it.

"Just a scratch," I said casually. There had to be a life gem around here somewhere...

Spyro shook his head. "You going to be okay?"

I sighed. Not really. "Yeah, sure. Don't worry about me. I'm fine." I had to be strong here. Any sign of weakness would be snuffed out. I could not be weak and I could not ever, ever be afraid.

I continued walking, praying for a red Spirit Gem, when we finally came to the end of the hall. The doorway here was massive, more like a whole wall had been smashed out. I gladly entered the warm sunlight.

Laying placidly in the grass was a pile of rocks and boulders. I payed no heed to it, but I stopped in my tracks. To my shock, they had begun to _move. _And not just move... they lifted into the air and floated! I couldn't believe my eyes. The rocks continued to move about until, finally, they pieced themselves together into a rock monster, with a face, legs, arms, everything.

"Uh, Spyro?" I asked, my pupils constricting.

"What?" Spyro, had had walked forward asked. He spotted the rock monster immediately. "...Uh-oh."

"Spyro? What beats rock? Fire or electricity?" I whispered, backing away from the monster.

"Ice, Crystal!"

"Oh, no..."

The monster swung his arm—if it could be called that; it was just a large, rectangle-shaped rock connected to a vine at the creature's "shoulder"—but I managed to dodge the attack and retaliated by breathing fire. The rock monster _did _burn, but the flames only lasted for a few seconds and it didn't look injured in the slightest.

I resorted to more blunt methods. With help from Spyro (though not so much Sparx), we rammed the monster over, smashed it into the ground, and basically performed every melee attack we could think of. This was met with more success. The rock monster fell quickly, collapsing into a heap.

"The Atlawas are going to have a hard time cleaning up the mess we're making when we're done," I said, looking around. The ground had been kicked up, charred, and rocks were everywhere. Besides, we left a trail of carnage wherever we went.

Before us, there was a loooong bridge, made of bamboo sticks glued together. It swayed in the air, and there were no rope fence to catch us if we fell. Just looking at the bridge made me queasy.

"Spyro... If I fall off... promise you'll catch me?" I asked, gazing at the bridge and taking a few timid steps towards it.

"As long as you do the same for me," Spyro replied uneasily, walking forward.

I took a few shaky steps onto the bridge. It began to wobble with my own shaking, but I couldn't even stop. I managed to raise my paw, which seemed to be planted into the bridge, and take a few steps forward. Spyro was right behind me, albeit a bit more confident.

We got to about the middle before the catastrophe. Some Soldiers came running down the bridge, right towards us. I managed to block their attacks without falling over, and even threw one off, but a Soldier's swipe knocked me off-balance. I went tumbled over the edge with a shriek.

Not thinking, I propelled myself forward with a flap of my wings instead of grabbing onto the edge. The only left was to grab one of the log sticks that ran horizontally across the bottom. I don't like to think about what might have happened had I not grabbed that stick. I couldn't see the ground; it must have been hundreds if not thousands of feet below us. I would have been falling too quickly to spread my wings and fly back up. ...As I said, I don't like to think about it.

Well, instead of hanging safely on a ledge, I was holding on to a small stick directly _under_ the bridge, afraid Spyro would step on my paw.

"CRYSTAL!" I saw a Soldier go flying over the edge. "Don't let go!" Spyro yelled.

"Why in the _world _would I let go?!" I screamed. I swung back and forth, trying to at least get my back paws between the wood, but I wasn't strong enough, nor was I strong enough to raise my other arm up and get a better hold.

Spyro ran off. A few seconds later he came back with my bag and set it on the bridge. The moment he did that, I remembered that I had taken the bag off to fight the rock monster and had forgotten to get it back. But that wasn't important. I could feel the bamboo beginning to crack under my weight... it wouldn't be long until I fell. I looked down and gulped.

"Here!" Spyro said, brandishing the stick I picked up earlier and holding it out for me to grab. I swung about like a pendulum and jumped for it, just as the bamboo stick I had been holding onto snapped and went flying down to the ocean far below.

Spyro grabbed my outstretched paw and pulled me up. I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I punched his arm... lightly so he wouldn't go flying.

"I told you to catch me!" I said, with a little amusement in my eyes. "Thank you. Now, let's go!" I stood up.

I didn't waste time then. I ran to the other side of the bridge, eager to get onto land again. The moment Spyro and I stepped foot on it, a Dreadwing flew over and dropped a carton of dynamite on the bridge, right in the middle. The bridge snapped in half.

"Good thing we weren't still on there," I commented, continuing along.

We were on a circular island here, mostly just grass and a bush. There was another bridge, which I reluctantly headed towards. But I saw a shadow swoop over me before I could reach it. Gasping, I dove for the bush, a split second before the Dreadwing landed. Neither it nor its rider saw me as they did so.

"Ha," the Soldier riding the Dreadwing sneered. "Where's your baby sister? Taken to Concurrent Skies, I bet!" He cackled evilly. Spyro glared at him but didn't move. "What's wrong? Are you afraid? I bet you think you can save your sister. Well, you can't! But don't worry. They'll make her death _almost _painless. That's right. That girl's going to die, and so are yo—AAH!"

I quelled my fears, at least for the moment. The Soldier was making me furious. How dare he insult Spyro! How dare he!

I crept up behind the Dreadwing, paused, and shot a fireball at the rider, causing his outburst. I then jumped onto the surprised Dreadwing and knocked the rider off onto the ground with a blow to the head. I proceeded to jump off and set them both on fire. They died, but not so fast that the Soldier didn't hear what I had to say. "HEY! Nobody makes fun of Spyro but _me!"_

Spyro grinned and rolled his eyes. "Very funny, Crystal." We both took off into the air.

"Hey, guess what, Spyro?"

"What?"

"We could have just _flown _over the bridge last time!"

"...Oh."

I groaned and landed on another large main island. Before us was a short cave, and in the cave, dart traps mounted on both sides off the wall were going off. Quickly.

"Something tells me this won't be easy," I said to myself. I just might have hit something there.


	22. Growing Up

"Ouch!" I yelled, dragging a (luckily unpoisoned) dart out of my cheek and ducking under the rest of the flurry of them.

Spyro, who had easily weaved his way to the other side, waited for me patently. When I reached him, I was covered in darts. Spyro glanced at me, but turned his gaze to the room around us. We were in an arena-like room. It looked to us as if there had once been a hill, but it had been cut into a basin. There was a spiraling, natural ramp that led to the top of the room. Clusters of Spirit Gems grew (if they did actually grow, anyway) abundantly. Otherwise, there was nothing notable here.

"Would you quit sightseeing and help me get these out? Ow!" I dragged another dart out of my arm.

Five minutes and many outcries of "Ouch!" later, the darts had been removed. Prickles of pain shot up and down my body, but at least those awful darts were out. But before anybody could speak, we were attacked.

It was hectic. Armadillos were the first forces. They rolled down the ramp. The Soldiers were right behind them, charging at us, and a Commander stayed at the highest area in the basin. He blocked off both exits with green magic from his green Spirit Gem staff.

I sidestepped two Soldiers who had thrown themselves off the top level. They collided into the wall behind me, broke their skulls on it with a sickening _crack! _and died. I looked skeptically at Spyro. How stupid could these things be?

A bunch of armadillos and Soldiers surrounded us, swarming us. We decided that now, electric Fury was necessary. The storm clouds were back, but they were bigger and black as night. I was getting stronger and better, I knew. The clouds dispersed, having done their deadly work.

With at least half of the forces utterly destroyed and a few up high caught in the Fury as well, there wasn't much left to be done. Spyro and I ran up the ramp, flaming and electrifying and throwing Soldiers off the edge. Finally, after plowing our way through, we arrived at the Commander. It was way too easy to just throw him off the edge and into the bottom of the basin with electricity, although he was so heavy that Spyro and I had to use our elements at the same time. The magic barring the way out disappeared with the Commander's death.

We ran on outside the basin and were approached a Dreadwing. I dove behind Spyro and let him kill it with fire. I may have gotten over my fear _one time _because the Dreadwing's rider was making fun of Spyro, but come on! Those things are terrifying!

We were met with another bridge, this one longer than the two we had encountered already. This time Spyro and I used our common sense and flew over to the land on the other side instead of trying to cross the bridge instead.

We came to the place where I presumed the Atlawa grew their crops. There was wheat everywhere in this field, growing in large but neat squares. Right in the middle of the field was a plateau, and another plateau in the middle of _that _field. I squinted and saw Soldier-made cannons placed on the edge of each raised piece of land.

There were alarms sticking up in the middle of all the fields. One vertical stick served as the pillar, and a short horizontal bar made a T-section. I wonder why they call it that, because T-sections look nothing like our letter T. Anyway, attached to the horizontal bar on the top were windchimes, three to a side, and that was the alarm system.

The most notable feature in this field, though, was the river that ran along from the topmost plateau, waterfalling into the one below it and so on until it ran right off the edge of the island. Waterwheels were placed near the waterfalls, although they weren't spinning. I gazed up at the highest plateau and noticed a stone door, but it was closed. I looked at Spyro.

"We're going to have to use the waterwheels to move ahead," he said.

"Ohh, it's never easy," Sparx muttered.

While Spyro took on the job of looking for switches, I went for the earth cannons on the next plateau. A few fireballs caused them to explode, ending their dart siege. Meanwhile, Spyro pushed a switch near one of the wheat fields. The windchime alarm went off, and some armadillos burrowed out of the ground and attacked Spyro. By the time I got to him, they were dead.

"We better keep an eye on each other," I said, before walking into the wheat. It was taller than we were and it was hard to see through the stalks.

I stumbled upon a switch during my adventure and pushed it down. I heard the alarm, but didn't have time to dodge the tackle from the armadillos. Or should I say guardillos? They were, apparently, guarding the wheat field. In any case, I threw the creature off, pinned it, and clawed at the vulnerable underbelly. Bright red blood speckled the armadillo's stomach and the wheat stalks around him, and it wasn't long before it went limp.

Spyro, while I was occupied, had hit the third switch. He set off the first waterwheel and killed the armadillos that subsequently attacked him. We met at the river and flew up onto the next plateau.

There was an earth cannon I had missed here. Spyro quickly blasted a fireball at an earth canon before it could shoot at us, much to my gladness. No more darts for me!

We split up, both of us hitting a switch each. The guardillos were in less abundance up here, so fighting on my own wasn't so bad. We met at the river again and travelled together to seek out the final switch. It didn't take us long; it was right by the waterwheel, not even hidden in the wheat. This was repeated on the third plateau (nothing was different that time around). All of the waterwheels were activated, and the stone door rose up, allowing us to continue.

As we walked through and were confronted with a lot of big rock monsters in a small room, we decided to use Fury. No other choice, really. And boy, did we realize that our fire element had gotten stronger!

Fireballs flew around us, destroying pieces of walls. They rained from the sky and crashed through the roof! Bam, bam, bam! If the place had been made of wood, it would have been burned down.

The monsters were more than dead. They were _obliterated. _The water in the room that fed the river had evaporated completely. The stone foundation was cracking. I looked at an an appalled Spyro and laughed, leading him forward.

We entered onto another plateau overhanging a small valley-like area. In it, below us, was another river. It was fed by a waterfall on the western plateau. The river poured right over the edge of the island, turning into a waterfall. What scared me, though, was that Kane was standing in the river way up on the western plateau, and was backing away from some rock monsters.

"KANE!" Spyro and I screamed in unison, just as Kane stepped backward and found no ground to stand on. He fell into the river with a cry and was knocked unconscious. He started to drift towards the edge.

"Yeah, I know the guy's an ingrate, but you've gotta do something... fast," Sparx said anxiously, watching Kane float along with wide eyes.

He was going to go over the edge and fall! We couldn't get there fast enough to stop him from falling, and even if we could, we mayn't have been strong enough to pull him out of the water's strong current. As these panicked thoughts ran rampant through my head, I unwittingly opened my mouth and breathed a burst of... ice? Yes, ice! A cold mist that reached the river and froze the end of it solid.

Kane hit the ice and, recovering, looked around dazedly. Realizing that he was leaning against ice in the hot and humid Tall Plains, he started and looked around in surprise.

"You two are getting weirder and weirder by the second," Sparx said, shaking his head. Spyro and I nodded slowly in agreement.

Kane gained his bearings and jumped away onto the northern plateau, disappearing into the trees that dotted it. The rock monsters jumped down from the waterfall immediately after. They were easy target practice for my new ice stream ability... it killed them so easily. I was starting to _love _this element!

Our group continued on. In the northern plateau's wall, there was a doorway and a short hall which we walked through. On the other side were even more plateaus, apparently a common element of Tall Plains. The plateaus, each other higher than the other, were separated by gaps that were long enough to glide from.

A Commander was standing on the highest plateau, the one in front of us, way on the other side of the area. There were more plateaus on either side of us, with Soldiers and Leaders galore on them.

A few Soldiers jumped off the raised areas, their agility never failing them. While I was fighting them, I discovered something awesome. Much to my amusement, they turned into giant snowballs whenever I breathed ice on them. While I laughed my tail off, Spyro rolled the snowballs off the edge of the island.

We jumped onto the first plateau, a raised area hardly two feet off the ground. We climbed onto the one next to it, flaming and knocking off Soldiers as we went. Gliding over to the next plateau on the other side of the area, we did the same. We jumped forward, onto the third and final plateau.

The Commander was here. Spyro and I bravely faced him, although the battle was short-lived. We knocked him off the edge and he died the moment he hit the ground.

"Too easy!" Spyro said with a laugh, walking forward towards the door in the wall.

The room beyond, within the walls of the hill, was a very large room. At the far end was an alcove containing another Commander, and the stretch of land that was in the middle of me and the alcove was filled to the brim with Soldiers, Leaders, earth cannons, and maces that hung from the ceiling, swinging about so we could hardly jump into the air without fear of being hit.

I used the well-working method of fireballs to destroy the cannons while Spyro took on the Leaders. When I was finished, Spyro was still working on defeating the Leaders, so I turned my attention to the Soldiers. I used electricity arcs to send the Soldiers flying into the air. The maces finished them off. They were suspended in the air, so they couldn't get away.

After all the other enemies were defeated, Spyro and I went for the Commander. We weren't high enough off the ground to just easily throw him anywhere and expect it to kill him, so we had to do it the hard way.

The fight was hectic, the dynamite exploding, the Commander smashing his Spirit Gem staff onto the ground making earth waves, our fireballs throwing light and heat all over, the electricity crackling, the ice whooshing... I was a little sad when the Commander was finally dead. I loved fighting the Commanders. The Soldiers and Leaders were so easy to defeat, but not these great enemies. They were so dangerous, but I couldn't help but like the danger. I couldn't wait to see what came next.

In the corner of the room, there was a ledge. We climbed onto it and walked through the path it led, outside. I gladly breathed in the air. Being underground... it just made me uneasy. Well, below us was an area that was a bit like a plateau, but more like the opposite of it. Perhaps like a pit. There were layers of ground here, like square stairsteps, each leading down lower. In addition, many face blocks were stacked about the area.

_This must be a burial site, _I realized. I'm not sure how I figured that out, but in a way, it made sense. The random pit that defied all geological term, all of those creepy face blocks, and some areas seemed like the grass had only begun to grow on them. It added up.  
But this area was fairly swarming with Soldiers who all attacked us the moment they spotted us.

A Leader called out in... whatever their language was, and even more Soldiers appeared on the scene. I hadn't seen any purple, Fury- power-filling Spirit Gems in a while, and Fury power took a long time to fill up unlike elemental power, so no fire Fury for me. I sighed and continued fighting the overwhelming forces.

After a long while, I emerged from the fight victorious but considerably cut up. The most serious wound was a gash in my side, which hurt, but would only be serious if I didn't get to a Spirit Gem soon. Luckily, there was one right in the area. I patched myself up, coming out with a half-healed scar. Spyro had easily killed the Leader in the meantime. In addition, a stone door that had previously been closed rumbled open, leading to a hallway.

Spyro, Sparx, and I headed down the dark hallway. The walk took a few minutes. I glanced at Spyro and Sparx worriedly. They had been so quiet... and with Sparx, that was nothing short of astonishing. But all jokes aside, I realized that something was... different about them. They had changed, yet I couldn't detect anything different about them. This frustrated me.

Eventually, we stumbled upon what appeared to be a giant maze. Even more plateaus served as the walls, as well as more face blocks than I had ever seen. They all seemed to be glaring at me. I heard the sound of a fight, and Kane appeared on one of the plateaus. He was fighting two Soldiers, both of which he rammed into and threw off the edge. He glanced at us with an air of disinterest.

"You again? Why don't you get out of here and leave me in peace? I'm the boss here, nobody else!" Kane said to us, clearly annoyed.

"The boss of what?" Sparx asked.

"Shh!" Spyro whispered to Sparx, holding up a paw. Sparx was not helping to make friends with Kane. I'm not sure why Spyro wanted to be friends with him, as he was being very rude, but I guess he figured he could help us.

"You're all alone?" Spyro asked.

"Only until I kick these bums out. Which reminds me, I can't stand here all day chatting with purple dragons and mosquitoes!" Kane replied.

_Mo—why didn't I think of that? _I thought to myself.

"Whoa, whoa, who you calling a mosquito?" Sparx asked angrily. I grinned to myself at the thought of him hating that name. Oh, I was _so _going to torture him with that one.

What? We're siblings. We're all a family, but we take every chance we get to annoy each other.

"Besides. It's not safe here," Kane continued. At least he cared about our well-being, but still. Nothing could stop us.

"Oh, concerned about our welfare now?" Sparx asked, rolling his eyes.

"No need. We can take care of ourselves. Anyway, we need to get to the shrine," Spyro said.

Those words just bored a hole in me. I was struck dumb with realization. That was what had changed about Spyro and Sparx. That was why they seemed different... and me as well.

We can take care of ourselves.

Usually, three nine-year-olds couldn't take care of themselves but... this was different. I wished I was home again, where I could only take care of myself a little bit, where Mom and Dad took care of me. I had accepted it already, but I had only truly realized it now. I was growing up. But I was growing up too fast.

This was too much... but not enough. I kept pushing on. I needed more.Spyro and I, we were born to fight and we were showing it. Even though I had the subconscious feeling that perhaps we were thrust into this situation a bit too early in our lives, I wanted—no, I _needed _to defeat Cynder once and for all. I wasn't going to give up now. Spyro was right. I _could _take care of myself.

"You'll never make it." Kane turned and pushed away some more Soldiers, heading to the farthest area of the maze where I presumed the exit was.

I sighed and looked at Spyro. He shrugged and we continued forward. We never looked back.


	23. Mosquito

Still annoyed with Kane, I took a right turn and walked forward, knocking a Soldier out of the way. I approached a little stone slab sitting on the ground. There was a circle-shaped depression in it. It looked as if something belonged there.

"Hmm..." Spyro said, burning a Soldier and turning into another part of the maze. I followed him past even more of the strange face blocks, freezing some Soldiers into snowballs and grinning. That still amused me.

Turning yet another corner, Spyro and I sneaked up behind a sleeping Leader and electrocuted him. We turned right and encountered a bunch of faces blocks... well, blocking the path.

"We're going to need to split up if we want to figure out this puzzle," Spyro noted, looking around at the plateaus. I looked at him like he was crazy and sighed.

"Don't go too far... Sparx, follow Spyro," I said, running off.

After a few minutes of twists and turns, I encountered a stone door. I walked up to it, contemplated, and hit it. I jumped as it raised up with a rumble, revealing four yellowish-brown stone balls.

"Ahem."

I looked up to see Spyro sitting on the plateau-wall, surrounded by dead Soldiers and smoking cannons.

"What? You don't spend all day around your mischievous sister and learn _nothing." _Spyro said, noting my surprised look.

I grinned and headed inside the stone door to the small room with the balls in it. On the other side of the room was another door, which was closed.

"Spyro, I think I know what to do with these things," I said, tapping a ball. It rolled away as if I had shoved it rather than lightly touched it. "You go open the other door. I'll put the balls in the slabs. I'm ready to roll." I laughed. "Did you hear that? I just made a joke!"

Spyro groaned and jumped up the cliffs where more Soldiers lay in wait. I rolled the one of the balls back around into the slab I had seen earlier. Surely enough, the ball fit like a charm and refused to budge once it was in the hole. I went back to the ball-room and rolled the other one down a long hall-like part of the maze. It took a bit of searching to find the next puzzle-hole, and it was no surprise that the stone ball fit into the depression as well.

When I arrived back at the small room, the other gate was open but Spyro was nowhere to be found. Presuming he was off doing something on the plateaus, I proceeded to wander around and finish up the puzzle. After the fourth and last ball was in the puzzle-hole, I heard a rumbling noise. Squinting up at a cliff, which consequently was right in the sun. I managed to pick out the gate, or actually where the gate used to be. I had found the solution to the puzzle, and now the way was clear.

_The sun is setting, _I thought. It wouldn't be long until I had gone over twenty-four hours without sleep, and yet I didn't even have the slightest prick of sleepiness. Although I was a little hungry. I dug into my bag and pulled out a fuzzy fruit that I didn't know the name of, just as a quick snack while I waited for Spyro. When I was finish with the fruit though, he was still nowhere in sight.

I suddenly felt afraid as pain began to grow in my side. "Spyro, hurry up! We're too far ap_art!" _The last part was strangled. The pain had grown.

This was what I had described earlier—what happened to us if we were too far away from each other. Spyro must have been clear on the other side of the maze, as we could go a long way from each other before the pain kicked in.

I managed to get into the air and fly onto the plateau nearest to me, making my way over to Spyro. As I got closer, the pain faded until it was gone.

"You okay?" we asked together. We both had the same thought at the same time.

"Jinx! Double jinx! Triple jinx! Quadruple jinx!" we said in unison.

"Uhhh... quin... octo... quasa..." I tried to think of what came next.

"Quintuple jinx, Crystal. You owe me," Spyro with a laugh, flying up to where the gate was.

"Dang it!" I followed him. That was just a game we played... or had used to play, anyhow. It was comforting to me to think that there was still a little bit of happiness and playfulness left in us, even if this situation was very, very serious.

_So much for growing up, _I thought to myself as I flew up towards Kane on the cliff.

"The shrine god has not been appeased since Cynder's forces came. He is not happy!" Kane informed us. He was standing at the gate.

"So, is anybody fun around here?" Sparx asked.

"You can't possibly face the god of the shrine alone!" Kane continued, ignoring Sparx. I just then realized that everybody did that... Wonder why.

"Not all of us are loners, Kane. We're not going alone," Spyro said. "Maybe someday you'll learn that three heads are better then one."

"...Even if the two males in the group are pinheads." I picked up the sentence and grinned, walking serenely past Spyro and Sparx.

"Yeah... what?" Sparx asked. He crossed his arms with an irritated huff and flew down some grassy platforms.

We glided to another small floating island. There were four pillars here on the corners of the island. They were connected at the top with beams. At the end of the small island, there was a large boat waiting for us.

"I'm not sure I like the looks of this thing," Spyro said uneasily.

"Oh, _now _you tell me," Sparx muttered.

"Doesn't matter. We don't know where we're supposed to be going. This boat can take us..." I paused and waved my paw dismissively, "there."

Reluctantly, Spyro hopped onto the air-boat, followed by Sparx and I. The boat had a large deck, with two cabins on the opposite sides of each other. But there was nothing else notable about this ship... except for the fact that it started moving automatically, as if following a set trail.

The second I heard a low growl I knew that this wasn't going to be a leisurely boat ride. Soldiers began to stream out of the cabins. I ducked as one jumped for me and fell out of the boat.

"One plus about an air boat," I said, ramming a Soldier off the edge, "is that it's in the air!"

Electricity was a commonly used element here, just because of its ability to throw enemies without me having to go near them myself. It was easy to fight off the Soldiers, as always.

"Take that!" yelled Spyro to the sky when the Soldiers stopped coming. Unfortunately, they were replaced with Leaders.

Even though they were bigger, heavier, and stronger than their smaller counterparts, it was still so easy to defeat the Leaders! They couldn't be pushed or thrown off so quickly, but setting the boat on fire quickly put a stop to their games. In retrospect, perhaps that wasn't the best idea, but it worked well enough.

"Is that all you got?!" I yelled once the Leaders stopped coming.

Apparently not. I should have known better. Next came the Commanders. This fight was not so easy. The Commanders were stronger than us, simply could not be budged (even with electricity), and dodging their Spirit Gem staves, sword swings, and punches was not easy. The Commanders landed more than a few blows on us. After a lot of fighting and fireballs, the boat arrived at its destination. We jumped off onto the island, just as the flaming boat sank out of sight.

"Well, that was fun," Sparx muttered, rolling his eyes.

At the highest island, which we all flew to, was yet another building made into the walls. Sighing, I rushed through the doorway, killing an armadillo as we went. It was quiet... too quiet. It wasn't going to last and I knew it.

After a trek through a hallway, we arrived at... well, the trap house. The hallways were full of darts, tripwires, pressure plates, and swinging maces. Oh, and Commanders with armadillos. AND ROCK MONSTERS.

I'll spare you. Long story short, we hit a lot of switches, killed a lot of monsters, dodged a lot of darts, and finally found Kane as we stumbled out of the building. Really. You're not missing anything. It was all really boring.

The area we entered was small, just a little clearing. There was a long... long bridge that led to yet another floating island, surrounded by natural walls. I just _knew _that's where Cyril was. I could feel it.

"I-I have to admit. You've done better then I thought possible," Kane said, crossing his arms.

"Ohh, saying that had to hurt." Sparx snickered.

"More than you can imagine," Kane said to Sparx, before turning back to Spyro and I. "There are some things you should know about the shrine before you enter."

Kane was cut off as Cynder rose from the island, confirming my suspicions about Cyril. She glared at me, and I glared back, but she did not stop. Beating her wings, she soared through the sky and disappeared from my vision.

"Aaand, I think we're done here," Sparx said, mouth hanging open as he stared at the terrifying close-up of Cynder.

"Not before we rescue Cyril," Spyro said.

"And kill _her," _I growled under my breath.

"The Atlawa shrine has been desecrated. The god of the shrine has not been given tribute since Cynder's forces arrived! But if you can subdue his anger, the balance would be returned. We can come home," Kane continued.

Home. The place where you always come back to, no matter who you are. The place where I would come back to one day. Someday...

"That's fine, but we came to free Cyril," Spyro said, snapping me out of it.

"You have to go through the god of the shrine to free him."

"I _knew _he would say that," Sparx groaned.

"We'll help you, Kane. Come on, you two." I motioned for Spyro and Sparx to follow. I set out across the bridge, very slowly and carefully. I wanted to save my strength, and even flying for a short time would deplete it.

Sparx flew forward onto the island. Pots and face blocks were laying about. In the middle of the shrine was a pile of rocks and rubble. The place looked as if it had been raided, and I wasn't surprised. But the most important thing here was a dragon who was, of course, Cyril. He was unconscious, just as Volteer had been.

"Be careful. Remember last time," Spyro said to Sparx.

"I know, I know, but Cynder left and I don't see any _ice kings _around here." Sparx rolled his eyes.

The last word hadn't left his mouth before the heap of stones began to shake. Many of the rocks lifted into the air and began to piece themselves together. Five seconds later, the pile of rubble had became a giant version of a rock monster. The only different was glowing yellow eyes, obviously being way larger, and this thing, the Stone Sentinel, was covered in moss.

"When will I learn? When things look good, run for the hills!" Sparx flew out of the shrine to escape the Sentinel's wrath.

Spyro and I immediately decided that splitting up was the best thing to do right now. We did it just in time, because the Sentinel swung his foot out in a kick that would have likely killed both of us. Diving behind a stray rock, I breathed fireballs rapidly. Unfortunately, this attracted the Sentinel's attention, and I had to run for my life in order to dodge its kicks and punches.

God or not, the Stone Sentinel was pretty pathetic. A force to be reckoned with, sure, but fire severely weakened him and ice froze his feet in place, leaving him vulnerable. A combination left him exposed, and Spyro and I took full advantage of that. As strong as the Sentinel was, Spyro and I were faster, and the battle was short. It wasn't long until he was gone, tumbling over the edge of the shrine island, far, far below.

~~...~~

"You have subdued the god of the shrine, restored balance to seasons, the land, our world. The Atlawas want to worship you now," Kane said.'

He wasn't kidding. The Atlawas, who had previously been hiding underground, now where chanting and bowing down before us.

"Worship. Okay, now that's what I'm talking about. I've never got the respect I deserve, the praise that should be mine," Sparx said.

I smiled. I wasn't full of myself or anything... but I was a goddess, after all. May as well smile.

"That's very nice, Kane, but we have to get back to our land," Spyro said, apparently not caring as much about being an important deity. I scowled a little, not wanting to leave, but flashed a sunny smile to my fans.

"We've got to figure out how to stop Cynder for good," Spyro continued, before turning to me. _"Crystal, _are you ready to go?"

"No," I said, grinning. "Come on, Spyro, can't we stay just a little longer?"

"My dear Atlawas, I am the mighty Sparx, scourge of the despots!" Sparx was saying to the Atlawas.

"Yes, yes, old boy, we'd like nothing more then to stay and be a part of your primitive, barbaric society, but duty calls, duty calls," Cyril said.

I glanced at him. He had only awaken recently, and I hadn't been paying attention to him until then. He was light blue with ice colored wing membrane, purple wings and underbelly, and his eyes were blue as well. That's pretty much a quick summary of his appearance. His voice held a proud, almost arrogant ring to it.

"Well if you must, you must. But know you are now part of the Atlawa tribe. One of us," Kane said.

"I am the mighty Spa—"

"Whatever..." an unidentified Atlawa said. Sparx drooped, unhappy he had been interrupted.

"By the way," Kane said, "you were right. Maybe three heads are better then one... even if one of them belongs to an annoying mosquito." I smiled. I had told Kane to say that last bit for me.

"Mosquito, me? Is that—ohh." Sparx sighed. Today just was not his day, and now that I knew to call him a mosquito every chance I got, tomorrow wouldn't be either.


	24. Enrapturing

"Yes, yes, Volteer, I see that months of captivity has done nothing to slow that electric tongue of yours from incessantly wagging," Cyril said to Volteer.

It was clear as soon as they first spoke to each other that Volteer and Cyril had a sort of... rivalry? There's no way to really explain it. They just _argued _a lot and it was driving me crazy.

"It's just that it's all so exciting, exhilarating, enchanting, enthralling," Volteer said, pausing at the end and trying to come up with another adjective that started with E.

"Enrapturing?" I offered.

"That's a good one," Spyro agreed.

"Alright, no more thesaurus for you, pal," Sparx said, turning to Volteer.

"Will all of you _please _be quiet?!" Ignitus yelled. That managed to get all of our respective attentions. A wave of silence washed over the room. Not another word was spoken.

"It is certainly encouraging that Spyro and Crystal have been able to rescue two of you to allow this reunion, but haven't we forgotten someone?" Ignitus continued.

"Yes, yes, of course, Terrador!" Cyril said.

"Precisely. Now, how do we proceed?" Ignitus asked.

"I believe hopefully I can help, Ignitus." Cyril turned to Spyro and I. "Well, young champs, since you learned some things about ice on Tall Plains, I suggest we adjourn to the training room so I can teach you some more. The legacy of the great ice dragons of yore, _my _ancestors, come from the best of the best of this somewhat bedraggled lineage, is long and storied. With my help, rescuing Terrador should be a certainty."

Sparx smacked his head with his hand. Ignitus sighed and Volteer looked annoyed. I had the urge to laugh and I had quite the time holding it in. Luckily, Cyril didn't seem to see the twinkle in my eyes.

"Your pomposity, arrogance, and pretentiousness is odious to the extreme." Volteer groaned.

"Shall we?" Cyril asked, ignoring Volteer.

Training and then another adventure! I was ready for anything now. I couldn't wait to learn more about ice and then go, go, go!

Spyro and I walked tot he training room, followed by Cyril. The statue started to rumble into the ground a few moments later. I stared into its eyes, glowing brighter than ever before, as the statue disappeared into the ground. The combat circle in the middle closed over it.

"Certainly fire and electricity are nice side-bys, but now, young dragons, you will learn the secrets of ice. A power worthy of elites."

I was hardly listening. My mind was on the statue. I had just noticed something about it... it looked somewhat familiar. I had certainly never met anybody who even resembled the dragon depicted in the statue, but I was left with a lingering feeling of doubt.

"Crystal," Spyro said, snapping me out of my reverie. I realized I had completely missed Cyril's explanation.

"Nothing!" I said quickly, rushing forward and breathing ice on the dummies. I didn't want to give Spyro the chance to ask what I was thinking about. I put up a block to keep him out of my mind. I just... didn't want to talk.

"Beginners luck, I'd say," Cyril said when we had finished. I rolled my eyes and waited.

Next we had to chase dummies down. Typical. Luckily, this wasn't hard. Breathing an ice stream allowed me to freeze them from far away and catch up to them before they could outrun me. Training got easier and easier every time I went through it.

"Even a completely blind dragon finds success once in a while," was Cyril's ending statement this time.

I wasn't quite sure whether he was complimenting us or calling us blind.

"Try to concentrate your ice breath into an ice shard this time. It's quite easy—even a very young child could do it."

Spyro tried first. The shard hit the dummy's leg, knocking it off its feat. I hmmed, closed one eye, opened it, and breathed an ice shard. It hit the dummy right between its button eyes. Spyro stared at me as if I had just done that, but while doing a flip. I grinned. Guess I just had a good aim. This continued until all the dummies were gone.

A little bit more uninteresting training later, we finally reached the Fury exercise. I was excited now. I fought off the Soldier dummies with apparent vigor, waiting in anticipation for the Leader dummies to appear. It took a few minutes, but they finally did.

The power within was harder to draw out this time. Every time I grabbed it, I had to let go because it was so cold that it burned. Metaphorically speaking, of course. But I managed to do so and lifted into the air. Snowflakes appeared out of nowhere, swirling around us. So many appeared that they turned into a flurry, and then a whirlwind. Round and round they went, a blue aura beginning to surround me. I released the power, killing all of the dummies. Same as every other training, except for the element used, but I didn't care. Now I was ready to go.

"You have mastered the element of ice, something few can boast," Cyril said as we stepped out of the ring. The statue began to raise out of it.

_I wouldn't say 'mastered', _I thought to myself, staring at the great statue. Mastering would take years, even for Spyro and I. Our training had hardly begun.

~~...~~

"So, what exactly are you saying, Ignitus?" Cyril asked. We were gathered around the Pool of Visions again.

"Yes... your hypothesis is an intriguing one, but perplexing to the extreme," Volteer stated, shaking his head.

"Huh?" Sparx asked Spyro.

"He says he doesn't know what he's talking about," Spyro explained, nodding first towards Cyril and then towards Ignitus.

"Dude, I never know what he's saying," Sparx said to himself.

"What I'm saying is that Cynder is... harnessing the Guardian's power to unlock a portal... that must never be opened," Ignitus explained. A chill ran down my spine and I involuntarily shivered.

"Why? What's behind it, Ignitus?" I asked. Ultimate evil? Darkest darkness? The end of all times? What could be so bad? It was all just confusing.

"That doesn't concern you right now," Ignitus replied.

I exhaled sharply, slightly annoyed, although I said nothing and bit my tongue to keep from complaining. I hated it when nobody told me things that did, obviously, concern me.

"What _does _concern you is getting to Munitions Forge, and freeing Terrador before she can create another crystal from his powers."

"And before the volcano, FRRROOM! Blows its—" Volteer started. Spyro and I were visibly terrified at this thought.

"T-that's enough, Volteer!" Ignitus said sharply, possibly trying to calm himself down as well as us. "There's plenty of time. Plenty of time."  
"Plenty of time? What, we need more time to have horrible things happen to us?" Sparx asked.

Spyro and I stood up reluctantly. Volcano? We were going to an active volcano to rescue Terrador? I was both excited and frightened at this thought, but I knew that we had to do this. Rescuing Terrador was more important than my personal fears, and I knew it.

"Why didn't we stay in Tall Plains? Oh, I'm a big deal there!" Sparx continued to complain.

"Quit complaining, Sparx. Maybe there's a tribe on Munitions Forge you can save," Spyro said. Him and I exchanged glances and rolled our eyes.

"Yeaaah, but there's always something special about the first tribe you save," Sparx said, as if he spent all day saving random tribes from the clutches of evil.

I sighed, shook my head, and towards the door. Sparx could be so random sometimes. And I was supposed to be the random one...


	25. Are We There Yet?

Although I managed to stay in the air, Spyro, also known as my brother the klutz, didn't. He somehow got tangled up in some tree vines soon after taking off and ended up crash-landing on the ground.

"Are you okay?" I asked, flying down to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Spyro stood up and shook his head before flying back into the air.

"Oh, by the way... nice landing, Spyro." I snickered and dashed away from him. Spyro glared at me, but made no move to retaliate.

We set off for Munitions Forge, which was already in our sight but distant. I could see the silhouette of the volcano if I looked hard. The sun was nearing, ever-closer, to the end of its reign today, but it would be an hour or two before full nighttime.

I sighed as I flew along. The flight was very quiet. Even after we had reached the dangerous ocean, there were no Soldier cannons, Leviathans, or even Dreadwings to speak of. I was so bored, but then I saw the purple saviour before me.

"Are we there yet?" I asked expectantly, knowing very well that we weren't there yet and wouldn't be for a while.

"No," Spyro answered flatly. He knew exactly what I was up to.

"Are we there _yet?_" I asked a few minutes later.

"No, Crystal. Not yet."

"Are we there yeeeeet?"

"No!" was the prompt response. I knew I was annoying Spyro, and that was exactly what I was going for.

"_Are _we there yet?" I hardly waited thirty seconds this time.

"Yes."

"Really?"

"No!"

"Are we there yet?" It was constant now.

"No!"

"How about _now?"_

"No! We are not there!"

That silenced me for about a minute.

"Hey, Spyro, I have a question..."

"_What?"_

"ARE WE THERE YET?!"

"NO!" both Spyro and Sparx yelled at me. I grinned. Success. Spyro and Sparx were annoyed, and I was amused.

This time, I waited about ten minutes, to give them a sense of security. Finally, I said suddenly, "Are—"

"—we there yet?!" Spyro finished, exasperated.

"Yes!" Sparx exclaimed.

"Oh, _finally!" _was all I had to say about it. That was where the joking around ended and the seriousness began.

We landed at the base of the island. The moment I neared the ground, the heat started to sink in. The sand under my paws was one notch below searing, and I found it hard to stand still on it. The ocean around us looked and smelled odd. It was polluted, and foul-smelling steam rose from it. I found the source of the pollution, a giant metal tank across the beach that had lava and other things flowing from it to the ocean.

Also at the far end of the island was a metal ramp that led up to a passageway in the mountain. There was a giant pickaxe that was somehow slamming itself into the ground. I had no idea how in the world that was possible,but I just decided it was best not to ask. In the distance was a volcano, and I could see the heat waves rising above the top.

"Munitions Forge is an island dominated by Boyzitbig, an unstable volcano that makes life on the surface very dicey. The locals, who live underground, have been forced to mine the metals that Cynder uses to forge her army's weapons," Ignitus said with his magical mind-talking powers. I think he was speaking to us through the Pool of Visions. I still didn't have it figured out yet.

"But what are the locals called?" Spyro asked aloud, glancing about.

"They're called Manweersmalls."

"Right. Do I need to write that down?" Sparx asked sarcastically.

"Rumour has it that Cynder is holding Terrador somewhere in the mines. Now she's using him to power the last crystal she needs to open the portal. Free him before she gets the chance." With that, Ignitus' voice was silent.

"Boy, is it big!" Sparx exclaimed, referring to the volcano. I sighed. Boyzitbig? Boy-is-it-big? And I bet the Manweersmalls are moles?

"Yeah... it's big." Spyro said, his voice awestricken. We had heard of volcanoes, but we had never seen one. That was no mountain... it was amazing.

"But no time for sightseeing, Sparx," Spyro continued. "Time to get serious. Let's go." We walked forward towards the far end of the island.

"Ugh... not again!" Sparx squeaked, flying after us.

I bit my tongue to keep from complaining about the very hot sand. By now, my tongue probably had various puncture wounds in it—I had been having to bite it and keep back a nasty or sarcastic comment a lot more than usual!

I dodged sideways as a Soldier catapulted into me. Unfortunately, he didn't miss. I screamed as we went flying into the poisonous water. The very hot, skin-degrading poisonous water. The Soldier was almost immediately roasted alive, but seeing that my scales could take a lot more damage than fur and skin, I managed to get out unscathed... just very hot.

I spent the next five minutes screaming and running around in circles as smoke was visibly coming off me. Spyro yelled at me to hold still so he could breathe ice on me, but I payed little attention to him. I finally did what he asked and Spyro breathed ice. The burning sensation and smoke faded away.

"Thank you," I panted, knocking a Soldier out of the way and walking for the iron ramp that led to the inside of the mountain.

On our way there, though, we were interrupted again. Some Soldiers and a Commander streamed out of the tunnel. The Soldiers were easy. I just turned them into snowballs with ice and rolled them down the ramp and into the polluted ocean. The Commander was a bit harder, as he didn't freeze as easily or turn into a snowball at all. Alternation between ice, to slow him down, and electricity, to throw him, worked well here. Once we had gotten him into the ocean, I exchanged glances with Spyro and continued up to the tunnel.

We slipped into the darkness, heading towards the glow on the other end. There were some beetle nests attached to the walls, reminding me of home, the time beetles had swarmed the Swamp. Although I didn't like that memory, it was still a memory. I felt more homesick than ever, but I pushed the feeling back, shaking my head to clear it. I needed to concentrate.

The metal ramp cut off at the end of the tunnel. The metal at the end was bent and twisted, as if it had been longer before, but had been cut off. Spyro, Sparx, and I were above a trench. The glow was coming from lava pools below. They bubbled like slightly boiling water.

I exhaled a breath of ice. It was hot in there. I'd have given anything to be teleported to Dante's Freezer. Despite the occasional bad experiences, at least I wasn't dying of heat.

The _bang bang _of a giant pickaxe brought my attention back. I looked down again and saw a few Soldiers as well as a Leader. I glided down. I told myself that I could withstand a little heat as I did. We weren't going to be here for long anyhow.

Spyro pushed the Soldiers into the lava pool. Although I was glad that all these hazards were in the area and made for easy kills, the pained shrieks of the Soldiers as they sunk into the lava duly unnerved me. Where was the fun and excitement, like there had been on Dante's Freezer? Now I was just melancholy and maybe even scared. Maybe I had been all along.

In the corner of the room was a door with a fire emblem on it. It opened silently and automatically as we approached. We climbed the stairs and entered the large room that spread out before us.

Remember the mole thing?

There was one standing right there in the room we walked into, his back turned to us. He was wearing a disk-shaped hat with a candle burning steadily on it, and was leaning on a cane.

"Man... he is small," Spyro whispered to Sparx and I.

The moment the words escaped his mouth, the mole jumped in surprise, flipped around, and faced us. "What's that?! Who's there?!" he shouted in some strange accent, sniffing the air and holding his cane out towards us as if it were a weapon.

"I-it's me. Spyro," Spyro said, as if we had known the mole for a long time.

"And Crystal," I introduced myself, backing away and not wanting to provoke the mole.

"And the former god of Tall Plains, Sparx," Sparx boasted, glancing dismissively at his hand.

"You don't carry the stench of Cynder's forces... so you must be friends," the mole said. He dropped his stance and tapped the cane on the ground contemplatively.

"We are... who are you?" Spyro asked.

"I am Mole-Yair, leader of the Manweersmalls. But I'm not much of a leader anymore. Those are my people who are mining for Cynder without pay, scared out of their little wits, waiting for Boyzitbig to blow!" Mole-Yair gestured towards a tunnel. I could faintly see the shadows of moles in it.

The ground rumbled briefly but forcefully, throwing Spyro off his feet. I barely managed to hold my own. I helped Spyro up.

"Which shouldn't be long. If you could help me free them, perhaps there's something I can do for you?" Mole-Yair asked. I looked at Spyro.

"I don't know. We're here to rescue a big friend of ours," he said.

"Is he a mighty dragon?"

"Yes... why?"

"Because I know where he's being kept! He is being kept near a large labor camp, where my own brother, Exhumor, toils away! We can help each other!" Mole-Yair exclaimed, fairly dancing.

"Well, what do you want us to do for you?" I asked.

"Oh, it's simple enough, but we've got to hurry! Boyzitbig is getting more unstable by the minute! We must clear this cave before we can help your friend," Mole-Yair replied.

"And you're asking him for directions?" Sparx asked. "Talk about blind leading the blind."

"Forget him, Mole-Yair. We're in," Spyro said.


	26. The Mean Old Bell

Spyro and I headed for the tunnel, breaking some Spirit Gems and regaining our energy on the way. I jumped down a low step and encountered a Manweersmall in the little cave. He was being held in place by a small, blue Spirit Gem, which acted as a leash for a collar around his neck.

"So how do we get him out?" I asked Spyro. The Manweersmall looked at us with large, imploring eyes, dropping the pickaxe he was holding in disbelief.

Spyro walked up to the Spirit Gem, paused, and hit it. The magic leash faded. The Manweersmall nodded his thanks and, hardly believing his luck, shakily burrowed into the ground.

I walked over to the doorway that led to the next room. A few steps led down into it. I dived off the steps, purposely hitting a Soldier and killing him in the process. I still couldn't believe I could do that. I didn't weigh that much.

Spyro and I turned to the next part of the cave, where a Leader called out and four Soldiers ran into the room. They hooted and all dived for Spyro at the same time. I jumped in front of him before they could hit him, taking the blows. I stumbled backwards, dazed.

In the ensuing fight, I managed to get very cut up, and the fact that the four Soldiers ramming into me at the same time had made me dizzy and disoriented didn't help. With the help of Spyro, I managed to kill off the Leader and Soldiers. When they were dead, I sat down. Oh, this _hurt. _I was weak from all the blood loss from my cuts. Spyro walked over to me, anxious.

"A-are you okay, Crystal?" he asked.

"I'm fine, just slightly shaken," I lied. No need to worry Spyro when all I needed was a red Spirit Gem and I would be fine. I stood up and headed to a cluster of Spirit Gems. Spyro had to help me get to it, though, as I could hardly walk. Once I absorbed their power, I felt much better. Scarred, but better.

"Thank you," I said to Spyro.

"It's nothing, little sister," Spyro said, trying to lighten the mood, as he knew what my reaction to that would be.

"Excuse me, but I believe _you _are the little one and I am the big sister," I rebutted.

"How do you remember that?"

"I just know, okay?"

"You are so lucky you are hurt," Spyro muttered. "It's nothing, _big _sister."

I smirked. Victory was sweet. I followed Sparx as he led us down another dark hallway and into a room with two Manweersmalls in it... and two Leaders. Fire easily dispatched them. Spyro and I hit the crystals holding the Manweersmalls down, and continued on to the next room and the next room and the next room...

Soon enough, after many more fights with Soldiers and many freed Manweersmalls, we were back to where we started. It took about thirty minutes to free them all, and here I thought we would only be at Munitions Forge for an hour. Oh well.

"We freed all of the Manweersmalls," I informed Mole-Yair as the group approached him.

Mole-Yair laughed wildly. "I know! You did it! You did it!" He spun around and jumped on his cane as he said that, surprising me. For needing a cane to walk about, he sure was nimble. "A thousand thanks! Mwah mwah mwah!"

"It was nothing," Spyro said, backing away.

"Hey, no problem, pal," Sparx said.

"It was actually really hard," I stated. Spyro and Sparx both glared at me. I stared back blankly. "...What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Well, you did your part, now I will do mine. Your friend is being kept in the center of the volcano, past the labor camp where my brother, Exhumor, is working. Find him and let him know we're friends. He'll tell you how to proceed," Mole-Yair informed us.

"How will we know Exhumor?" Spyro said the last part with a horrible accent.

"Yeah, all you... Man-are-we-smalls... look the same to me!" Sparx said, crossing his arms.

Mole-Yair laughed. "Oh, you will know him. Trust me, he is the most cantankerous, hard-nosed Manweersmall around! Whatever you do, don't get on his bad side! Now, follow me."

Mole-Yair led us over the a great boulder that blocked the path onward. I thought burrowing through solid rock was hard. I was wrong. Mole-Yair practically made the boulder explode.

"Thanks!" Spyro and I called back together, running to this next room. I had a feeling we would see Mole-Yair again very soon.

The room we entered was unbearably hot. I could practically see the heat in the air, waves like the kind you can see on a hot summer day. I breathed an ice shard but kept it in my mouth so I wouldn't overheat. Large lava pools covered at least half of the area. Metal fences with fancy carving surrounded the lava lakes, and big metal stoves that sat near them gushed lava.

Some Soldiers rushed towards us, but I easily destroyed them (as well as the steel stoves; I pushed them into the lava) and weaved my way around the waves of Soldiers. Sparks flew as Spyro and I summoned great electricity power, throwing the Soldiers about at random. Some landed in lava pools and some hit the walls. Either way, they were dead.

When I ran forward, three things hopped out at us. They looked like oversized, purple and yellow mealworms. Their claws were crab-like, large pincers that snapped together loudly. The giant worms were reared up on their backs, and they also spit fire, made strange crying noises when I hit them, and had 'blood' that resembled the goop found inside some mushrooms. These "mealworms" were actually called Magmaworms.

When we were finished with the Magmaworms, Spyro and I ran forward, knocking some Soldiers into lava pools. A Commander appeared on the scene, but he was dispatched in the same way. I kind of felt like I was "cheating" by doing this, but oh well, I just wanted to get out of Munitions Forge!

On through another hallway we went. The beetles here were hostile, so we smashed them as well as their nests. We soon came upon another small room, and in it was a giant purple scorpion. The scorpion roared and snapped its claws together. The sound was so loud and frighting that it made me cringe. Spyro and I, not willing to go near this beast, did not immediately approach it.

Instead of trying to chase us, though, the scorpion shot a goop ball out of its tail that hit me and stuck me to the ground. No matter how much I struggled, I couldn't break free. Meanwhile, Spyro was left to face off with this beast alone. It snapped at him, but Spyro managed to dodge it.

This continued for a few minutes (I had managed to free my arm by then) until Spyro realized he wouldn't be able to defeat this thing on his own with traditional methods. So, instead he managed to grab the great scorpion's claw and pull it off, scattering goopy blood everywhere. The scorpion roared with rage and stumbled backwards. He was so focused on its claw that he fell off the cliff edge and into the room below. If it wasn't dead from the fall, we wouldn't have to deal with it at the very least.

Spyro walked over me and managed to pull me out of the orange goop, but I was still covered with the stuff. That was _not _pleasant. I glared at Spyro while he suppressed a laugh.

On the other side of the room below was another raised area. Spyro and I flew over the gap. Nothing interesting here. One tunnel later, we entered a much larger room. The ceiling was cracked and broken, the last bit of twilight's light streaming through the cracks. In the middle of the room was a large structure. It was like a house with no front or back, and hanging down from the 'ceiling' was a giant, cracked bell.

Spyro and I approached the bell, but I had the uneasy feeling that I shouldn't. There was something wrong with it, and all my senses were on edge. Of course, Spyro just had to. He slowly reached out a paw towards it, and I made no move to stop him.

"Bet you can't ring that bell!"

Spyro snatched his arm back and looked at Sparx. "Why would I want to?" he asked.

"Oh, you're scared," Sparx taunted.

"We're not scared," I said.

"Oh, the big special dragons are _scared _of the mean old bell. Oh, I didn't know that, oh no, I'm sorry baby, I'll get your pillow laid out."

Spyro and I glared at Sparx. Well, there was nothing else to be done now. We hit the bell as hard as we could. Its deep ringing rang out in a single clear note that vibrated the very foundation of the cave.

Only a cracking noise was our warning. I looked at Spyro, looked up, and I was suddenly very frightened. I didn't move an inch before the bell fell. I would have screamed if I hadn't been frozen with fear. I saw darkness, but felt no pain. After about five seconds, I let out a delayed shriek.

Well, I screamed and I could hear myself, so I wasn't dead. That was a comfort. I touched the bell. I could feel it. It wasn't on me. I was inside it. I breathed a sigh of relief.

I could hear Sparx outside, yelling at us, although his voice was muffled. I strained to listen to him through the thick walls of the bell.

"SPYRO! CRYSTAL! Spyro, are you okay, buddy? Crystal? Can you hear me? Okay, listen, forget about those cracks I made about your fatness, and your being purple and stupid and fat. Alright? Just get out of there, please. Don't be dead..."

I gave a sympathetic look to Spyro, although it was pitch-black and he couldn't see me. Poor Sparx.

We hit the walls with all the force we had, but the only thing that succeeded in doing was leaving us sore and bruised. That was when I began to be frightened again. What if we couldn't break out?

I felt a rumbling sensation in my throat and I knew something new was coming. I opened my mouth, and a blast of green earth came out. It was the same with Spyro. The bell shattered and broke into pieces under the force.

I looked at a surprised Spyro. The look on his face was priceless. I was shocked myself. We turned to Sparx, who was speechless with surprise.

"Did you say something?" Spyro and I asked together.

"Me? No! I was... talking out loud, thinking of my day, I gotta do..." Sparx said quickly, trailing off.

"Oh, just... thought I heard something before I blasted my way out," Spyro said. He and I exchanged glances and we followed after Sparx, who led us into another tunnel.

"No, that's funny. Yeah, no, you must be hearing things."


	27. Chase

We all headed over to a tunnel in the corner, ready to continue on. But before we could reach it, a few Soldiers ran into the room. I glanced at Spyro and used my new-found earth blast to knock them back. It was pure, raw power. I couldn't believe it.

We headed through the aforementioned tunnel. I still couldn't believe that it was so easy to just push the Soldiers that tried to stop us back and race past the few who were alive.

We ran along until we found another room, although this one was big, big, big! Lava pools were everywhere here. There were three tall metal pillars, with steel ramps curving in circles and leading up to the top of them. On the other side of the room was a strange machine and some rails cut below ground level. I also saw a small group of Soldiers. One over-hyper one was jumping around. He wore a crazy stripes hat.

"Come on, you worthless waste of flesh! Let's go!" the Soldier with the hat yelled. "We've gotta hop on Steam and get back to that flea-bitten dragon! The crystal should be almost ready, and the volcano's right on the brink!"

The Soldiers he was yelling at hopped into the machine. It was very strange. It was made of shiny steel and had a pipe running our of the top of it. Large wheels sat on its sides that had bars on them, and the front of it , with slits in the metal, jutted out. Steam came out of the pipe, but the steam smelled horrible. It let out nauseous waves of pollution that made me want to throw up. An ear-splitting noise escaped from the machine, the bars began to move in a circle on the wheels, and the machine began to move down the track. It disappeared through a door.

"Come on, Sparx! We've got to catch them!" Spyro exclaimed, crossing the room in a few bounds. Some Leaders that had been left to guard the area hooted to each other and pulled switches they were all standing near. The door the train had left in slid shut.

I sighed. It's never easy. Not even a little bit. I couldn't wait until this was over; I hadn't slept in almost twenty-four hours, and frankly, I was getting tired. Sleep was a necessary part of my day!

Still annoyed, I ran up one of the iron ramps. One of the Leaders had been standing on the pillar. I shot him in the stomach with an ice shard, causing him to fall over the edge, and pulled the switch. I turned and looked at the door. There were some lights on the door, and one lit up green.

Spyro and I shot fireballs at the Leader standing by the switch near the door as we glided down to him. Easy. Spyro pulled the switch this time.

Another ramp to the second platform awaited us. Three Soldiers were up here. It was so simple to ram them off the edge and allow them to fall to their deaths. I walked over to the switch and pulled it. The door opened. Spyro, Sparx, and I flew down to the rails. There was a smaller version of the large machine we had seen earlier here, but there was only enough room for one to sit in it without being cramped.

"I get to hang off the edge!" I volunteered. Hey, I probably wasn't smart enough to control that thing anyway. Spyro got into the machine and I hung off the edge, gripping tight so I wouldn't fall.

"You don't know how to drive this thing!" Sparx exclaimed.

"How hard can it be? It's on rails," Spyro replied.

"Oy. Famous last words," Sparx muttered.

Spyro's paw wavered over the many buttons in front of him. He was unsure of what to press. I shoved him over and pushed the large green button that said 'Start' on it, giving Spyro a skeptical look and taking my place back on the rim. The crazy contraption started forward with a jolt and quickly picked up speed. It didn't take long for us to catch up with the crazy-hat Soldier and his machine he called Steam.

Heart pounding in excitement, I threw a fireball at the back of Steam, although it didn't seem to do very much. Spyro examined the buttons on our small machine and pressed a yellow one. We flew forward, nearly throwing me out, and hit the back of Steam. Two of the Soldiers riding on it fell off.

"You fools!" the crazy-hat Soldier yelled at us. But I knew we were not fools. He had no way to fight back, and we had him right where we wanted him.

The railroad track went up and down hills, making me slam my head on the ceiling multiple times. I wish I hadn't volunteered to sit on the edge.

"They can—ow! Cover the—ow! Whole island—OW! In machinery, but—oww! They can't make this—OWW! Flat? !" I yelled, hitting my head randomly while I tried to speak.

Even though I was hurt, thoroughly bruised, and quite irritated, I continued to throw fireballs at Steam. I breathed a killer fireball, and the whole back of the train exploded. "Ka_boom!_" I exclaimed.

Luckily for us, Steam had just turned onto a double-track and we didn't follow, so the wreckage didn't hit us.

"You'll never catch us, purple boy," the crazy-hat Soldier yelled back at us as we went onto another two-way split a few minutes later. I was fuming. Oh, _no. _The only ones who were allowed to call Spyro 'purple boy' were me and Sparx! I breathed fireballs with all my might at the train, relishing in every explosion.

Many, many fireballs and taunts later, Steam began to slow down. We went onto another split.

_Why'd he do that? _I thought to Spyro. He wouldn't have been able to hear me over the roaring of machinery and whistle of wind.

I don't know.

Then it dawned on me. Once we were on one track again, Steam approached behind us. The crazy-hat Soldier laughed at us.

"Um... Spyro?" I asked, glancing back.

"What?"

"Speed up."

"Huh?"

"Speed... _up!" _I shouted.

Spyro hit the yellow button with all his might. We certainly sped up then!

"Hang on!" I yelled. I glanced at Sparx, who was safely in the seat with Spyro. He would never have been able to fly this fast.

The next few minutes were terror for me. Spyro pressed every button on the stupid machine, but still Steam drew ever, ever closer... Until it accidentally turned onto another track.

"This is no good," crazy-hat Soldier said, before disappearing. I looked at a shocked Spyro confusedly, then looked in front of me, where his frightened gaze was plastered.

"AAAAAAAH!" Spyro, Sparx, and I screamed together. The track cut off... right into a lava pool! I dived off the edge of the machine, somersaulting when I landed on the ground. Spyro and Sparx jumped into the air. A moment later, the machine flew through the air, landed in the lava, and sunk.

I stared at the metal as the lava around it bubbled and it sunk. Spyro landed beside me. I couldn't help but laugh disbelievingly as we walked away, knowing just how narrowly we had escaped death. Again.

I examined the area. A lot of Spirit Gems of all types were here. There was a track running above us, suspended in the air by metal poles. I flew up into the air and onto the track, but had to jump back into the air as I nearly got run over by a machine like the one we had just been driving. We walked along the track, dodging the occasional machine—I believe they were called minecarts—and headed into one last tunnel, where we iced the occasional beetle.

At the end of the tunnel, I saw a mole I knew to most likely be Exhumor, standing with his back to us as Mole-Yair had been. As soon as we approached him, he jumped about to face us.

"Wait! Wait, wait, wait, we're on your side!" I exclaimed, backing away and hoping he wouldn't attack us. I did not want to kill Exhumor if he decided to try and fight us. For one, that simply wouldn't be... good, and for two, he was the only source of information as to how to find Terrador!

"More likely spies for the Conductor, and that flying beast, Cynder," Exhumor growled. His accent was even heavier then Mole-Yair's was.

"No... Uh—Mole-Yair sent us," Spyro said quickly.

"My brother is alive?"

"Sure he is, buddy, safe and sound. But I've gotta say, he's the friendly one in the family," Sparx said, crossing his arms.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. In these dark times, one can't take chances. So, Mole-Yair is alive." Exhumor laughed. "Wonderful news! ...Eh, why did he send you here?"

"Well... he said you might be able to tell us where our friend Terrador is," Spyro said.

"If he is a big dragon I certainly can. The majority of the Manweersmalls are kept in this camp, forced to slave above ground and mine for Cynder. The word is your dragon friend is being kept somewhere inside... in the deepest pits of the volcano. All of us are doomed," Exhumor said sadly.

"Not if we have anything to say about it," Spyro and I said courageously together.

"What do you mean?"

"Yeah, what do you mean?" Sparx asked, who probably assumed as soon as Exhumor said 'deepest pits of the volcano' that we were done here.

"I mean, we're going to rescue the Manweersmalls, venture to the darkest pits of Boyzitbig, and find Terrador," Spyro replied bravely.

"Then it's off to karaoke!" Sparx exclaimed, crossing his eyes.


	28. A Tragic Loss

I sighed. I was sick of all this adventuring and fighting and whatnot, but my stupid big heart wouldn't allow me to ignore the Manweersmalls! That would just be mean!

…

There I go again! I missed the time about a day ago when I didn't have to care.

"Here we go again!" Spyro exclaimed, bounding out of the tunnel where Exhumor had been and into a large "field", devoid of all life safe Manweersmalls and Soldiers. There were some cages, big metal boxes with only a few slits for air, here. They were off the ground a few feet. I pushed one over, releasing two Manweersmalls inside, luckily unharmed. They nodded in thanks and immediately dived underground.

Meanwhile, Spyro had lit a fuse that trailed along to some dynamite. The dynamite was sitting under a giant cage that contained about five Manweersmalls. The cage blew up and sent them all flying, but they weren't hurt, much to my relief.

A bit of pushing Soldiers into lava lakes and knocking over cages later, and we were done with that. We had had about enough fighting, and couldn't wait to get back to the Temple and rest. Not to mention go home and show Mom and Dad our awesome new moves! Once all the Manweersmalls escaped, we walked back up to Exhumor... and Mole-Yair.

"So, I see you two crazy kid found each other?" Sparx asked semi-sarcastically.

"Yes! At last!" Mole-Yair exclaimed. "Thanks to you."

"We're just disappointed you didn't leave any fun for us," Exhumor said playfully.

"Maybe next time," I replied with a short laugh. Now was the time to be serious, and I couldn't spare any of it to laughter, unfortunately.

"Now, which way to Terrador?" Spyro asked.

"This way," Exhumor said, pointing at a door in the back of a camp. "But be careful. The Conductor and his maniacal locomotive will be close by."

"When you say be careful, does that mean try not to die? Because we're trying to do that anyway," Sparx said flatly.

"The who and his what?" I asked blankly. "Are you talking about that Soldier with the crazy hat and that thing he called Steam?"

"Yes, that's it!" Exhumor replied.

"Come, Exhumor! We must get all the Manweersmalls underground, where they belong!" Mole-Yair said, his voice dripping with worry for the other moles.

The ground rumbled again, and this time, both Spyro and I were thrown off our feet. The quaking didn't subside for a good three seconds.

"Yes. It won't be long now..." Exhumor said sadly.

I wished a little bit that I was a Manweersmall, able to just hide. But I shook that thought off. What would Spyro think of me if he heard me thinking like that?

~~...~~

The Manweersmalls were all underground. We had said our goodbyes, but now we had a bigger quest. It would be a while before we saw Mole-Yair and his friends again.

So, we ran. We ran through a tunnel, killing everything in our path. We ran through a clearing, killing more of the giant scorpions and a Dreadwing. Well, actually, Spyro killed the Dreadwing. We finally ran to a small encampment.

I thought I had seen a lot of ash in Dante's Freezer. That was nothing. Ash was fairly raining from the sky here, blanketing me in its warm cover. I was not a purple dragon anymore, I was a grey dragon, and a grey dragon I remained until Spyro and I got inside a cave. We shook the ash off us here and looked around.

It was a drop-off, lit with the glowing crystals that dotted the walls. The purples and blues they gave off created a beautiful effect. I named the stones Moonstones, though I kept it to myself. I wanted to break off a few pieces to keep, but I realized that I had left my bag... somewhere. I couldn't remember. It was gone now, though. Oh well, there was nothing important in there. Nobody was very hungry.

Spyro, Sparx, and I glided down into the Moonstone room. We only stopped to look around in rapture for a moment before heading into another room through a cut in the wall. It was so hot there that it was almost unbearable. There were a few giant scorpions, easily dispatched with earth. I looked around this room. Nothing. No escape. It was a dead end.

That's when I saw a crack. I tapped the wall. It tapped back. Echo. I breathed a blast of earth on the wall that caused the rocks to crumble away. I grinned at Spyro and walked through the hallway. That's when I saw it. A giant Fire Beetle nest. It triggered something in me that had before been shrouded in the back of my mind.

-Linebreak-

They descended out of the sky. One minute they weren't there, and then they were. Somehow we had not been able to make it inside, and were trapped in the swarm of beetles, stranded in the swarm. We had no choice but to find the nest and destroy it.

"_Spyro!" I yelled out, pushing past beetles who tried to push me back. I was only five, and not strong enough to just walk through them._

Spyro didn't answer.

I felt fear well up inside me, but I pushed on anyway until I reached the nest and attacked it with all my small might. Even after it was gone, though, the swarm did not thin. In fact, it only got worse. I was forced to smash every beetle I could hit. But even when the beetles were all either dead or had flown away, Spyro was still nowhere to be found...

-Linebreak-

Suddenly filled with rage, I attacked the beetles. I was on a rampage.

_Oh, so you thought that you could beat me? That you could take advantage of the fact that I wasn't strong enough to fight you? Well, who's strong now, huh?! _I thought as I stomped and smashed them all.

Spyro wisely strayed from the fight. By the time I was done, every single beetle had been squashed (perhaps with more force than necessary) and even their nest was in pieces. Panting, my rage spent, I followed the confused Spyro as he led me and Sparx towards a metal door at the back of the room.

The door slid open as we approached, revealing two Magmaworms and a small hallway with lava rivers on either side. Another door was at the end and it had dynamite sitting in front of it. The Magmaworms were easily killed. I breathed fire on the dynamite. With a loud, large explosion, it blew the unresponsive door away. We continued on.

And here was a big fat OUCH! There was a giant spiral ramp leading way up, with a big hub room situated off the side. The room had tracks laid in it, and minecarts sped through. Oh, and there were Manweersmalls trapped their.

I'll spare you the Spyro getting repeatedly run over, the Soldiers killing us, and the Manweersmall release "mission" and cut to the chase.

At the top of the spiral room, we walked up to the last door and entered it. We found ourselves in a large room. There were those rails that Steam rode on everywhere, for some reason. They made a big circle with a plus sign in the middle of it. Lava pools were in abundance here. Most importantly, though, at the far end of the room was Terrador. He was unconscious and was hovering in a purple sphere, created by some sort of dark magic.

"Is that Terrador?" Spyro asked, his voice hushed.

"A big dragon being held in the center of an explosive volcano? I'm guessing that's Terrador," Sparx said.

"Yeah, well, it's never this easy," I said, looking around the room uneasily.

"After the last two times, you're not gonna get an argument from me, chief."

As if on cue, a large door in the wall opened. Steam and the Conductor drove into the room, screeching to a halt near Terrador.

"Oh, here we go again!" Sparx exclaimed, smacking his hand to his face.

"You're a little late, kids! The crystal's already charged and the volcano's ready to blow!" the Conductor yelled. "But before it does, me and Steam here are gonna take great pleasure in running you down!"

I laughed tauntingly and stepped into the middle area. The track cut the clear ground into four wedges. I had a good idea.

"You can run, but you can't hide!" the Conductor yelled as Steam began to speed up. When it was top speed, I jumped into the middle of the tracks.

"Nah nah nah nah nah!" I taunted. Steam hissed loudly as if it were angry and sped towards me, but I jumped out of the way.

"Aw, too slow," I said. I did it again. Steam practically flew for me this time, but I managed to dive out of the way at the last second.

Steam was unable to turn on the tracks, as it was going too quickly, so it went right off them and crashed into the wall. Its bottom was up, almost vertical to the ground. I took this advantage to climb under the train. I smashed my paw onto the bottom repeatedly until there was a big hole. Ow. I reached my paw in there, hoping not to get electrocuted, and snapped a few wires. Steam started to tip back, so I dashed out of the way.

Rinse and repeat. I know, I know, I'm cutting a lot of corners. But come on, it was just the same thing over and over again. The Conductor even kept falling for it!

The train, lacking the wiring it needed to continue began to slow down. It stopped completely near Terrador's cage. A few seconds later, it exploded, and Terrador was released from the cage and sent flying.

Spyro, Sparx, and I ran over to him. That explosion looked like it hurt. Was he...? Terrador remained still for several seconds, before coming to and blinking as if he were confused. He finally sat up and stared at us. Many emotions flashed through his eyes: confusion, disbelief, and surprise were among them.

"The purple dragons live!" Terrador exclaimed after a moment, having collected himself.

"They've got names, you know," Sparx said sarcastically.

"Yes. My name is Spyro," Spyro said.

"My name is Crystal. You're Terrador... right?" I asked.

"Yes, yes I am. And I must say, I thought I'd never live to see you, Spyro and Crystal," Terrador said.

"I guess it's a good thing we came before Cynder could do anything... permanent..." I murmured.

"Okay, I'd love to sit here and hug everybody and chitchat, but how about we leave before the volcano blows us up?" Sparx asked, looking around nervously.

"You're right. I've got to tell the others what Cynder is up to," Terrador said.

"Let's go. I'm right behind you. Actually, I'm in front of you," Sparx said, who was, true to his word, flying in front of us.

Everybody headed quickly for the exit. How stupid I was... if I only I had remembered to destroy the orb containing Terrador's elemental strength... But in my haste, I had forgotten.

The ground began to shake and one of the lava pools began bubbling. Something shot out of that lava pool a moment later. At first, I thought it was a rock. Then, I thought it was a fireball. But the lava began melting off that thing.

It was Cynder.

My breath caught in my throat and I stopped in my tracks. The lava dropped off her as if she _were _a rock. She wasn't even hurt!I knew that Spyro and I were to confront Cynder... but how could we, if she could withstand lava? I suddenly felt very small and very frightened.

Cynder's dark eyes were cold and devoid of any emotion, save for hate. Her gaze met mine, and I was locked in place, paralyzed by fear. She roared suddenly, and that snapped me out of it!

"Run!" Terrador shouted, stepping in front of us defensively. Spyro and I refused to move.

"Look, when the guy says run, I think he knows something!" Sparx exclaimed.

I refused to move. This was a sense of duty. I wasn't just going to leave Terrador for dead! His powers were just drained from him, and I was just going to leave him to fight Cynder alone?  
No.

Cynder swooped down and grabbed the orb that contained his power, flying away while Terrador chased after her. As they were flying, she roared and turned on him, pushing him back and sending him flying for the earth. He landed with a thud. Spyro and I ran for him, but we stopped dead in our tracks when a pillar that had been holding up the ceiling began to fall towards him. Terrador, luckily, managed to roll out of the way before he was flattened.

"Go! Fly like you've never flown before! I'll go back to the Temple for help!" Terrador yelled, taking off. He was gone in a second.

Cynder apparently didn't like that idea, and spun around with another roar. Spyro and I, scared out of our wits, took off immediately, flying through the door Stream had come through and into a rocky chasm filled with a lava lake and various machinery on the sparse islands.

Cynder was fast. She would catch up quickly, too quickly, but a blast of fire would put her back in line. As we flew down towards lava, I snatched up Sparx protectively and held him in my paws. He wasn't fast enough and I was _not _going to let him fall behind and get left behind—or worse, get caught by Cynder. He didn't protest.

We flew for our lives through rocky caverns. Frightened Dreadwings flew past us as well, trying to get out of the volcano before it was too late. Right now, I didn't care about them. Getting away from Cynder, who was just behind us, was more important.

We dodged blasts of... strange elements I had never seen before. The green blast that just licked my arm and left searing pain in its wake certainly wasn't earth, and the red blast that almost hit Spyro most definitely was _not _fire. I didn't ponder on it, though, I merely pondered on _getting away!_

Spyro and I, making a series of elaborate flips and turns, managed to get safely through a lavafall. Yes, a lavafall. In any case, there was a tunnel behind it, and I could smell fresh air. So through it we went, yet we still hadn't shaken Cynder.

Spyro and I made it into the crisp night air. I sucked in a breath, glad for it, but had no time to savour that I was outside again. I beat my wings, flying as fast as I possibly could, lack of sleep and energy had taken its toll on me. I panted and strained to fly faster, but I could not.

Cynder was on my tail. Just a few inches more and she would have me. I gulped and pushed myself until I thought I would drop right from the sky. But somehow, I began to outfly Cynder. Her presence disappeared from behind me. She was gone.

At first I was triumphant, but then I gave a frightened start when I realized that Spyro was no longer by my side. I stopped whipped around. I think my heart stopped and dropped when I saw the scene before me.

Cynder and Spyro were fighting. Spyro was trying to get away, but he couldn't; Cynder blocked his every move. Spyro finally spun and tried to get away, but Cynder was faster. She hit him in the head, causing him to fall towards the ground. Like a hawk, Cynder dived for him. I suddenly regained movement and dived for him as well.

I was not fast enough.

I had reached out my paw to grab Spyro, and he was right in front of me. But before I could, Cynder was already there. She snatched him up and held up, flying away before I could react. I shot a fireball at her, but it missed. More fireballs followed the first, but I just couldn't hit her.

That's when it dawned on me—there was nothing I could do. I was not quick enough to catch her, and she was too far away now to be hit with anything. And even if I could catch up, I wasn't strong enough to even hinder her in the slightest. She was going to kill Spyro, and I could do nothing.

But my hopelessness was replaced with a wave of defiance. I could still try! I couldn't lose hope yet without even giving it a shot. Wasn't this exactly what I had said to Ignitus? Don't just give up before the journey even begins! I flew for Cynder, determined to catch her. I had to catch her.

But before I had gone more than a few feet, I was forced to come to a sudden stop. Ignitus was there, and he had deliberately flown in front of me, blocking me from my rage-driven dive. He then flew to Cynder himself and engaged in battle with her.

I'm not sure why I didn't just wait for Ignitus to move and then follow him to attack Cynder. Although he hadn't wanted me to attack her, perhaps if I had, Cynder could have been stopped and the events that followed this part of the legend may never have been set in motion. Or perhaps I would have died. Perhaps Ignitus stopping me was the best outcome.

A long and violent battle started. Ignitus bit Cynder's neck which bled profusely, but even then, she refused to let go of Spyro. No matter what Ignitus did to her, she just wouldn't let go of him. She also didn't attack and only dodged, sometimes not succeeding. Finally, Cynder breathed a burst of the strange red element and Ignitus fell. Cynder dived after him and they disappeared from my sight, falling to the ground far below.

For most of the battle, I had been sitting there in wide-eyed shock, simply staring as Ignitus fought Cynder. Now, I started and realized that I needed to go after them. I began to fly, but suddenly, Terrador was there as well, and now _he _was blocking my path. I turned to go around him, but he continued to fly in front of me, not allowing me to go.

"I have to rescue Spyro and Ignitus!" I explained. "Now _move!" _I didn't care how disrespectful I was being. I needed to save them!

Terrador shook his head resolutely. I glared at him, stared into his green eyes, staring him down and willing him to move. I was notgoing to lose them, no matter what Terrador said!

"Let me go!" I demanded.

"They're gone, Crystal. There's nothing we can do," Sparx said sadly.

"I don't care! Neither of them would leave me, now I'm not going to leave them! Please! I can't let her..." My voice cracked. I couldn't finish the sentence.

"Crystal. He's right," Terrador said.

"I'm right?! Oh my god, that's a first."

I fought back tears. I had to save them, both of them. I... I couldn't let them die...

"Yes. You'd never find them in this mess. You're not ready to face Cynder yet. The fight will come, but it is not now," Terrador reassured. He read my mind, because right now my thoughts had turned to fury. I wanted nothing more than to kill Cynder once and for all. I was furious, but at the moment I felt more despair than anger. Still, though. I wanted revenge.

I exhaled, allowing my defiance to fade. My head dropped in defeat. "I guess you're right. Let's go."

Terrador gave me a reassuring look and flew forward. Sparx looked at me in a way that said, "It's going to be okay." I didn't believe him.

I gazed back at the volcano, lingering behind. My eyes glazed over, then snapped back to focus. I turned and flew away, trying to catch up with Sparx and Terrador. Just faintly, I heard a piercing shriek from the island below, sounding as if it had come from Cynder. But perhaps it was just my imagination.

The flight back to the Temple was very quiet. I allowed Terrador to lead and stayed in the back with Sparx, lagging behind. I wanted the tears that threatened to flow forth at any moment go unnoticed.

Sometimes I would think to myself, _What are you doing? Are you crying? Is the baby going to cry? Stop it. Stop it right now. What would Spyro say?_

It did not help.

But the farther we flew away, the more aware I became of the excruciating pain in my side, and the less aware I became to everything else. My mind started to numb, as did my body. I knew what was happening, but I said nothing. I was slipping into unconsciousness. But before I did, I heard a snap and saw a purple light pulsating around me. And then I was gone.

I dreamed. My vision was hazy, but I could clearly see Spyro in the distance, across the black void. I ran for him, but as I drew closer, something began to happen to him. His scales turned a darker shade of purple and his eyes narrowed to yellow slits. Horns began to grow from his head, that curved sharply at the end. He took on many more differences. He grew and grew and grew until he towered over me.

_You cannot hide..._

I backed up slowly, before whipping around. I ran and ran and ran, but he ran, and he ran, and he ran after me...

_There is no life in the dark... There is no life in the void..._

I opened my eyes. And when I did, fear hit me like a ton of bricks. The ground was plummeting for me in a rapid dash of colors. Terrador was yelling my name and Sparx was beside me, tugging on my horn. I pulled up off the ground, just barely saving myself. I felt the whoosh of air under me, felt myself just barely scrape a rock. I flew back for the alarmed Terrador.

"What are you, suicidal?!" Sparx yelled at me.

I wanted to reply sharply, but I could only managed a tired, "No."

"What happened to you?" Terrador asked.

"I think I—" I trailed off, my mind becoming blank again. I kept flapping, but I said nothing. Sparx snapped a few times in front of my face.

"—fainted." I finished, as if nothing had happened.

Sparx was staring at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You started glowing before you fainted," he said.

"Mm-mm. Let's go," I said, barely able to come up with a coherent sentence. My voice was tired and slow, but my mind was in a frantic state, filled with panicked thoughts.

After this, Terrador made me fly up front beside him, in case I fell again. I did not, but my mind slowly deteriorated all the way. Sparx kept a worried eye on me the whole way back, but not even he could spot the damage the encounter had done to me.


	29. On Your Own

"What happened? Where are Ignitus and Spyro?" Cyril demanded when Terrador, Sparx, and I arrived in the Pool room.

"Wha-what's wrong with Crystal?" Volteer asked. I was violently shaking. By now, I had completely snapped. My mind was a torrent of panicked thoughts.

"I-I—the volcano, and Cynder, and S-S-Spyro, and Ignitus tried to get him back, and I couldn't—" I tried to explain, but it didn't go as well as I planned. Volteer and Cyril stared at me, then looked at Terrador, who explained the situation. Sparx, for once, remained totally silent, as did I. I just sat, shaking, and listened to their conversation.

"Yes, she needs to go to Concurrent Skies, but she's currently not in any condition to be going _anywhere," _Terrador argued. "And neither are any of us."

"Well, we can't just stand idly by while Cynder opens the portal and kills Ignitus and Spyro!" Cyril exclaimed.

"Terrador is right, Cyril. I'm afraid that Crystal isn't going to be able to confront Cynder at the time," Volteer said. I suppressed a whimper.

Terrador turned to me. "Crystal, you need to sleep."

"What? No! No, no, no!" I protested.

"You must rest," Terrador repeated calmly.

"I have to go a-and save them before they—before it's too l-late!" I cried frantically.

"You need to rest if you're going to have any chance at defeating Cynder."

I wanted to protest more, but even in the state I was in, I knew he was right. Reluctantly, I turned and lay down, facing away from the Guardians and Sparx and towards the wall.

I did not want to sleep, but I did. I could not fight it, though I tried. As soon as I closed my eyes, I drifted off.

~~...~~

When I woke up, I felt much better. The frantic thoughts were less frantic and the shaking died down into hardly-noticeable occasional quivering. My mind was still foggy, and sometimes I still drifted off, but I was mostly calmed down and back to normal.

I sat where Spyro sat when we were at the Temple. I missed him. At least, I did when I didn't completely shut down. All I could feel was the empty loneliness in my heart, my blackened soul tearing at my mind shouting, _How could you do it?! How could you let them go?! They were just within your grasp! _Which only made me feel worse. The pain had disappeared by now, but it was replaced with a hollow numbness.

"I-it's my fault! I failed Ignitus and Spyro when they needed me most! I should have acted, but I didn't! They were right there, but I just sat there and didn't do anything!" I said guiltily, hanging my head. It soon raised again, with a fire in it that could outburn the brightest flame.

"I'm going to kill her, and I'm going t-to save S-Spyro and Igni-nitus!" I went back to the frantic stuttering. "I need to go after her, and I need to kill her and get them back! She _will _die if I-I-I have anything to say about it!" That's all I wanted. Revenge. My mind was focused on killing Cynder.

"Fear took over and I couldn't save them." I looked away, as my mild violence phase passed and was replaced with guilt again. I was having a bit of a mood-swing there.

"All warriors feel fear at one time or another, Crystal. There's no shame in that," Terrador said. I just gazed at him sadly.

"Yes, it's a proven scientific fact that the caution between adrenaline and trepidation—" Volteer began.

"Volteer, please. I believe our good friend here was trying to make a point," Cyril interrupted.

"Thank you, Cyril," Terrador said, turning back to me. "What I was going to say was that all warriors feel fear, Crystal. But only the most valiant among us can face that fear... and master it. From what I saw of you on Munitions Forge, you are one such warrior." Terrador paced around the Pool of Visions. I didn't follow his movements, only stared at my paws contemplatively.

"Young dragon." I turned around to face Terrador. "Now is the time to complete your training. Now is the time to face your fear. Come." Terrador turned and walked towards the training room. I was close behind.

"Am I the only one still petrified?" Sparx asked, following us. However slight, I couldn't help but smile. I wasn't facing Cynder alone.  
The door slid shut behind me, but I wasn't paying attention to it. I was focused on the statue in the middle of the room. Now it was more familiar than ever. Did its eyes just flash? Not the usual slow blinking, but a quick flash. I blinked and squinted at its. No... it was just my imagination.

"How to harness the soil, the wind, the world itself, is now within your grasp. Begin when you are ready," Terrador said.

I closed my eyes. A few seconds passed. Was I ready to fight again? Could I really face Cynder? No... yes! I had to. I must.

I gathered my strength and said quietly, "I'm ready." When I opened my eyes, the haziness was gone from them. They were as calm as they ever were. The calm before a storm...

A few dummies appeared. I propelled myself forward, tackling the first dummy, pretending it was Cynder. I hit it with a wave of earth. Like with Cynder, too, there would be no mercy.

I trained. Every step I took felt like thousands of needles piercing my body, and every attack I unleashed felt like the same needles were piercing my heart. At the end of each lesson, Terrador would say things such as, "Always be gracious of victory, Crystal," or "Battles are won and lost in the mind, Crystal." But I never listened; I only kept killing everything.

Although many times I failed or Terrador had to make it stop because I was getting overwhelmed, it never happened more than once. The next time, with a toss of my head, the dummies were defeated. I knew on the battlefield there were no second chances, that there would be no Guardian to take the forces away. But on the battlefield, I would be ready.

I finally reached the dreaded Fury lesson. I was afraid of this. Spyro and I both harnessed power from each other. What if I couldn't do it? What if Spyro was already...? I shook that thought from my mind. I mustn't think thoughts like that, I knew.

I opened my eyes when the large dummies came. I closed them again and almost unwillingly lifted off the ground, feeling the power that I didn't want. I could have been anybody else. Anybody who wasn't the purple dragon, who didn't have such a burden to bear. But then would my life have meaning? _Did _my life have meaning any more?

Leave whirled around me, like the snowflakes from icy Fury. Boulders smashed into the ground and into dummies. This was all powered by my hatred for Cynder. It was relatively weak to what I could've done if Spyro had been there, but it was still powerful.

When I landed on the ground, finally, I had to stop for a second. I could barely breath. All my power had been sapped from me, though it began to return, as it always did, after a few seconds. Eventually, I stood up and walked out of the circle in the middle of the room. The statue rumbled back up, but I payed no attention to it.

"Good job. Now... the final confrontation awaits," Terrador said, turning and walking back to the Pool room.

~~...~~ 

"You've done well, Crystal." Terrador informed me. I smiled weakly, still a little sapped from the Fury.

"Yes, yes, pat on the back, good going, all that other rubbish, but we've got to get moving here!" Cyril exclaimed. For once, I agreed with him.

"Oh, Cyril is terribly obnoxious. But in this case, he happens to be right, Terrador. Ignitus is the final piece to Cynder's puzzle. If that last crystal is powered, the portal will open, and we'll all be done for," Volteer said.

Terrador sighed. "I know, I know. When I was on Munitions Forge, I overheard the Conductor say that Cynder's final preparations will take place at her lair, where she lives in solitude among the clouds and towers. I am _certain _that's where she's taken Ignitus."

"We have to go there. Come on," I said to Terrador, much calmer now. The element of earth was so... steadying. I couldn't explain it. But I was completely back to normal now.

"I'd give anything to go with you, young warrior. But that crystal sapped the last of my will. I fear my fighting days are over," Terrador said sadly.

"Every generation must past the torch to the next, Terrador. Our time is done," Volteer said.

"Yes, it is Crystal and Spyro's time to shine!" Cyril exclaimed.

_If I ever see Spyro again, that is. Oh, what am I saying? It's going to be perfectly alright. Soon I'll be reunited with Spyro and if he thinks he's ever leaving my sight again... _I thought. I felt hope again, blooming in my heart like a flower, and that was enough.

"Now go to it, young dragon!" Cyril directed me.

I suddenly felt enlightened. I could do anything! I could defeat Cynder, and I could save Spyro and Ignitus! I hopped up and ran towards the door. It was time, and I couldn't wait.

"Wow, you guys make even _me _wanna face Cynder!" Sparx exclaimed. I halted mid-run, nearly tripping as I screeched to a stop, and turned to stare at him.

"...Did I just say that out loud?"

~~...~~

The flight was relatively short. For every inch closer to Concurrent Skies I got, the more clearly I could think. The numbness began to fade away.

Soon we landed at the base of Concurrent Skies. We couldn't go any further. Even from here, I could see electric fences crackling and preventing us from simply flying up to the tower. No, I would be making my way on foot.

"Cynder's lair is where hope goes to die, Crystal," Terrador said to us through his magic talky magic.

_How optimistic_, I thought to myself.

"It's the dark, imposing place in which Cynder broods and skulks and plans her next assault. You must make your way to her fortress, where I'm sure Ignitus is being held."

Spirit Gems didn't seem to be in abundance here. That made me uneasy, but I supposed I would do well enough without them. The walls here were made of... dark Spirit Gems? Yes, they were Spirit Gems of a sort, but they were unnatural. They felt alluring, but when I approached them, it almost seemed as if they sapped my power. I decided to stay away from them after that.

"Next time I say I wanna face Cynder, why don't you just go ahead and punch me in the mouth," Sparx said to me.

"No-o problem," I said bluntly, relishing in the fact that now my thoughts were almost completely clear.

My good humour was broken when I heard a roar. My head shot up, scanning the skies. It was before dawn—I had woken up early. Just barely, I made out the form of a dragon in the sky, right before it faded into the morning light.

Cynder.


	30. Running Out of Time

I shook my head as if that would make the memory disappear. Cynder was the first and last thing I wanted to see right then. She was the first thing I wanted to see because I still wanted to tear her head off, but she was also the last thing I wanted to see considering that alone I was practically powerless.

I walked forward slowly, savouring the decrease of pain. Seeing a stupid Leader, I growled savagely and it ran away.

"Terrador made it sound like this place was uninhabited!" Sparx exclaimed.

"What fun would that be?" I asked mischievously. "Come on, we've got to take them out."

I turned the corner. The weird Spirit Gems made a path to follow, only interrupted by a few cliffs here and there. Otherwise, everything was level.

I glided across some cliffs and, as expected, the stupid Leader from earlier was there. He stupidly howled and banged his stupid glass sword on his stupid arm armor, and two stupid Soldiers landed in front of the stupid Leader who stupidly crashed through a stupid locked gate instead of using the stupid key, which stupidly leaves me to stupidly fight the stupid Soldiers while stupid old Sparx goes to hide.

What a life.

I killed the Soldiers and hopped through the smashed-open gate. There was a path here. As usual, on all sides were the energy-sapping Spirit Gems. I saw the Leader and breathed a fireball, but it missed and he continued to run. After a few minutes of chase, he abruptly spun around and laughed at me tauntingly. Taking this chance, I rushed forward and horn-bashed him. He died as soon as he hit the Spirit Gems. He who laughs first laughs last... or something like that, huh?

I walked briskly on, following another narrow path until I came to a part where the crystals spread out into a larger area. The things Cynder comes up with to guard her fortress. Two _giant leeches _blocked my path!

The leeches looked a bit like Magmaworms, but they were certainly not the same. They sucked my magical energy away from me. I could actually see the aura fly towards them. Afraid that they would steal it all, I quickly zapped them and breathed a blast of earth that killed them on contact.

At the end of the area was a giant gate. I tried to shove it open, and when that failed tried slamming into it, but it wouldn't budge. I couldn't help but think wistfully how easy it would be if Spyro was here to help me. I finally settled for digging under it, as I was trying to conserve energy and two of the giant dark Spirit Gems were hugging the top of the gate. Flying over was not an option.

I hopped up a few plateaus and followed the winding path until I encountered a building. It was part of the dark fortress that loomed over the whole of Concurrent Skies. I approached the building, planning on merrily strolling through it and going on my way.

_And why didn't I see that coming? _I wondered as the door opened. Two Commanders and about twenty-five Soldiers came strutting out of the fortress. And of course, one of the Commanders raised up his Spirit Gem staff and made a barrier over the way I had just come, preventing my escape.

This called for preventative measures; preventing my death, that is. Earth Fury time! A few boulders and a lot of magic later, all of the enemies were done for.

I headed through the fortress door and came into a large room. The floor was raised up in the back of the room, and I could see a doorway leading to a dark hall. I glanced up above me. There was another room up there, which I promptly flew up to. A Commander attempted to hinder my path, but all I did was make 'im crispy with fire and throw him off the edge into the lower room with electricity.

I made my way out of the fort and glided down to some cliffs. As I approached them, the rocks that were previously still began to levitate and—sound familiar?—formed into an electricity rock monster, much like the non-elemental ones found at Tall Plains. Oh, how I would face off against all the Dreadwings there again just to go back. I certainly preferred that place _this _barren wasteland.

I couldn't believe how easily I was tearing through all the creatures here. Yet some things proved harder than others, and I would be fighting a lot better if Spyro had been by my side, like he should have been. I shuddered at the thought of him all alone, bleeding, dying... I shook my head to clear the thoughts, knowing I couldn't think like that. He was fine... he had to be fine.

I hopped up another plateau and down into a lowered area, trying to keep my mind off Spyro. But I just couldn't keep it from wandering to him, wondering if he was okay, if he was even alive. Spyro was my world. Without him, everything would crumble.

I sighed as more Soldiers came out of another piece of fortress that I approached after following a winding trail. After dispatching them, I walked into the aforementioned fortress. Of course, the door slammed shut behind me, and three Soldiers came flying out of the shadows.

I knocked one away and the others got shot with ice shards. Two more came, and they both got burned. The next door opened, and I walked outside into _another _winding pathway. As I walked along, I looked around, feeling something. I felt strange... afraid...

Sparx flew forward before I could stop him. He turned as he heard a roar, his face distorting in shock. Cynder came swooping down for him.

"AAAAAH!" Sparx screamed. I wasn't sure what happened next, as it all happened so quickly, but all I knew was that Sparx hit the ground.

I threw caution to the wind and rushed over to him. It wasn't really until that moment that I realized how much I loved Sparx. Sparx could be really weird sometimes, we both knew that, and I didn't appreciate him calling me chunky, but... I just couldn't lose him. Not then. Not ever.

I leaned over him, and much to my relief, he was breathing. Cynder had just narrowly missed him; Sparx had only been caught in the draft.

"Can't talk..." Sparx said weakly, reaching his arm for me. "Heart... breaking up..." I rolled my eyes, wondering just how I had been paired with him. He was such a goof.

"Come on. I know you're fine," I said flatly, hiding my overwhelming relief with flatness. Sparx flew up into the air.

"Don't scare me like that," I chided as I ran into another clearing. "Next time, try not to fly right into Cynder and you should be fine."

On the cliff before us sat a gate, although it wasn't the traditional kind. No, it also had electricity crackling through its middle. Welp, that was rather hindering.

A Dreadwing flew above me. I am so glad it didn't land, because I don't know what I would have done then. The Dreadwing dropped a Commander in the usual exploding carton. The Commander immediately used his staff to make a barrier.

I sighed. Why did they think I was going to run? I was going to stand right where I was and kill them there. No need to expend the magic for a barrier, but oh well, whatever they wanted.

The Commander hooted, and three of his Soldier friends appeared on-scene. I breathed an ice shard. My aim was still true, and the sharp shard hit the Commander right in the heart, killing him before he could even hit the ground. The Soldiers were next, although I used earth on them instead.

Of course, another Commander appeared. And then more Soldiers appeared... And that happened multiple times... I was stuck in that area for at least twenty minutes as I fought all of those forces until I just about dropped. Finally, though, the last was dead.

"Sparx! Look! The gate's losing power!" I exclaimed, just a little too happy that I was finally finished.

I headed through the gate and fended off some electricity rock monsters. They were most easily dispatched with fireballs. Fire was, as of yet, my most powerful element after all.

Along the path we went until I saw a Commander. He grunted at the sight of me and howled, calling in a few Soldiers and putting up a barrier. Surprise, surprise. I killed the Soldiers, then went for the Commander before he could call any more. With the help of a combination of earth and electricity, he was soon dead.

And into yet another fortress branch we headed, but I only found a strange, circular room here. It was completely bare. The black-as-night walls gave no sign of a secret area. I glanced around the room confusedly. The path surely couldn't end here...

My stomach dropped as the floor ascended. It literally started _moving _upwards without any action on my part. I shivered, half with fear and half with anticipation, as the metal walls were replaced with glass as we went higher up.

I gazed out over Concurrent Skies as the dark crystals became smaller and smaller. The sky was now a rosy pink, but black clouds blotted the colour out, marring its beauty. If those clouds didn't change course, there would surely be a lightning storm, and here I was, high up in a metal tower. Trying to push the grim thought from my mind, I gazed back at the Spirit Gems intently.

A few minutes later, the floor came to a halt with a jolt. I looked into the dark room warily before stepping into it. Adventure lurked here, but so did suspense. I was running out of time.


	31. Too Late

**A/N:**

**I did not come up with the scene with the dialogue between Sparx and Crystal on my own. A user known as Cynder-and-Spyro-fan on Deviantart drew a comic called Hidden Truths, and that's where the quote is from. (Obviously, I modified it, and it's really only the end.) Unfortunately, I hate Devi now (omgviruses!11), so I never got to finish the comic. But, yeah, credit to xir for that.**

* * *

The room was unusually quiet. I glanced at Sparx, uneasy, and stepped forward. On the walls, parallel to each other, were two glowing orbs. Some sort of light source, I supposed. The room had stairs at the far end of it, which I began to walk over to. I didn't get far, of course.

The orbs began to move. They jumped out of the wall as if they were alive—and that's when I realized that they were! They actually were alive!

Electric pink legs sprouted from the orbs. They stood up, high above me, and a red light emitted from them. A searchlight. One of the lights fell on me.

A loud noise, an alarm went off. I cringed from the loudness of it, but suddenly I was being shocked by the orbs' legs. I shot off a wave of earth and rolled out of the way. A blast of earth was enough to send them both flying. They bounced off the wall, and one whizzed towards me. I ducked in order to avoid being electrocuted again.

After the Conduits had finished bouncing around, they were most certainly dead. Upon their death, though, I only narrowly escaped being electrocuted. The Conduits curled into a ball, legs in the air like a dead spider. It began to waver and fluctuate dangerously, and, after a few seconds of this, _exploded._

It wasn't over yet, though. More orbs appeared in the other's places. Two by two, the Conduit jumped off of their resting place on the walls. I managed to defeat them, and just barely managed to not get shocked to death. When all the Conduits were... dead, I suppose—I'm not sure if they were alive in the first place—I headed up the stairs onto the next level.

Another hall, a few earth bombs, and a lot of Soldiers later, I found myself outside the fortress on its balcony, staring at two pillar that led to—oh, look. Another fortress tower. The pillars had circular platforms around them.

"I still don't like it..." Sparx said quietly.

"'Still' doesn't matter. Ignitus and Spyro need us," I said steadily, looking ahead.

"I'm not complaining, I'm just saying it would be easier if she was smaller. A lot smaller."

I scoffed with annoyance and flew forward towards the first pillar's platform.

"Well, it would be!" Sparx yelled after me.

The two pillars each had their own Leader waiting on it. Besides the fact that I was confused at to how they got up there, they were hard to kill, as I wasn't strong enough to push them off the edge and my elemental energy was depleted. I needed Spirit Gems and it was taking too long to come back on its own.

It turned out that there was actually a third tower, except this one had a very large platform. I hadn't seen it from my original position. I glided over to it, but boy, should I have flown around it!

The stupid second I stupidly landed, a big, stupid Commander walked out of the stupid fortress and put a stupid barrier all around the stupid edges and stupid top so I couldn't even fly away, and stupidly threw a bunch of stupid Soldiers over the stupid edge while stupid old Sparx goes to hide AGAIN!

When all the Soldiers were defeated, the Commander, for some odd reason, allowed to barrier to fade. I jumped onto the fortress balcony and fought him tooth and nail. The fight was long and hard, as my magical reserves were depleted by now, but he finally fell—literally, over the edge. I sat down and panted. It was a good ten or fifteen minutes before my elements came back and I had the strength to go on. Eventually, I stood and headed through the door. At least then I wasn't completely helpless.

This fortress had spiraling stairs leading down to the bottom that made me queasy just looking at them. I slowly began my descent, hugging the wall. Of course, though, I misstepped. And of _course, _I couldn't simply regain my balance. Oh, no. I had to be sent running down the stairs, unable to stop, and screaming like a little girl all the way. About 3/4ths of the way down, I just completely lost it and began tumbling head-over-heels down the stairs.

I landed in a heap at the bottom, heart racing and head throbbing. I needed a breather after that. I had lost the ability to count how many times I had almost died on two paws long ago. Though it would, of course, be obvious by now that I had nearly died more than eight times.

After sufficiently recovering, I headed through the open door that led to a large clearing. I stumbled upon a Commander, a handful of Soldiers, and two Soldiers commanding cannons. A Dreadwing, who was carrying a carton, flew right for the Commander. Who was standing by some dynamite.

No comment.

The Commander jumped away, but it was no use. The explosion hit him and he was sent flying through the air. I followed him with my gaze, staring in disbelief as he went flying past us. The explosion set off the dynamite beside the Soldiers who died as well.

Again, no comment...

Glad that the enemies had been unwittingly taken care of, I continued almost happily on. With every step I took, I drew a little closer to Spyro and Ignitus. I gazed up at the tallest tower of all. It was just a little bit in the distance. It wouldn't be long now until I arrived.

On the path I continued, until I stumbled upon some towers. They were very thin and very tall. Searchlights projected out of their tops, waving over the ground.

Fortunately, a Commander saw me and ran through the lights. As soon as the searchlight touched him, an alarm went off. Shockwaves projected out of the tower, killing the Commander immediately. Although that was good for me, it also meant that if I touched those lights, I would die. If that could kill a big Commander is one hit...

I considered flying over the towers, but seeing that occasionally the lights would go up in the air and it was hard to see them there, it was decided that staying on the ground would be a better idea. I studied the lights for a bit. They had a pattern. Every ten or so seconds, they would go up to the sky. When they did that, I dashed through the field. Surprised at my own speed, I glanced back at the lights before continuing forward.

It turns out the place was more heavily armed than I thought. When I arrived at the next field, there were five of the light towers there. Weaving through five killer lights (seriously, how does that work?) = not easy. And it wasn't. I nearly got killed at least seven times... but I managed.

I guess it was kinda luckily Spyro wasn't with me. With his curse of klutziness, he wouldn't have lasted half a minute out there.

I continued on, pushing open a steel gate. And, to my surprise, I found that I had arrived at the main fortress already. It was the biggest tower here, its tops so high off the ground that thinking about going to far up made my head spin. But, one step at a time, I told myself as I walked towards the stairsteps that led to the door. In front of me was what I knew to be Cynder's fortress. It was the biggest building here. There were large steps leading up to it, practically a whole flight of stairs. I gulped and stepped forward, preparing to begin the climb to the final confrontation.

That's when about three Soldiers ran out of the fortress, screaming. I stared at them as they scrambling right past me. I exchanged glances with Sparx. I could tell this wasn't good.

Out of Cynder's tower stepped a giant entity that resembled the Ice King. The only difference was the Electric King's armour was spikier. He was immediately dubbed the Electric King. He was simply a big lump of purple rock in black armour, radiating purple electricity deadliness.

I ran away from the Electric King's powerful attack. He had tried to shoot a blast of electricity at me. Luckily, he missed.

"What are you doing? Don't you have a plan?!" Sparx yelled at me.

"Um..." I replied, dodging another blast of electricity. Thoughts ran rampant through my mind as I tried to come up with something to do.

"What? You're _Crystal! _You always have a plan!"

I looked around frantically. Finally, I said, "Okay, okay, I have a plan!" I jumped into the air.

"Yeah! Let's show him what a purple dragon can do!"

I did a nose-dive for the Electric King, hoping that it would hinder him enough so I could get some blows in, but he smacked me away before I could even get near him. I slammed into the fortress wall, but luckily, I wasn't hurt too badly.

"_That's _all a purple dragon can do?!" Sparx exclaimed.

I stood up and shook myself off. I then turned to the Electric King, growled, and launched myself at him again. I saw it coming this time and dodged out of the way as he tried to smack me and send me flying again. Let's just say he didn't last very long after that. I conserved my elements, though, in the fight. I could meet Cynder at any moment now, and I needed to be prepared.

I made my ascent unhindered and into the fortress I went. There was only a single Commander in this large room that needed dealing with. He was easy to kill. I could hardly believe that only yesterday they were so hard to take on. Now they could be compared with the difficulty level of a Soldier.

I stepped into the middle of the room and looked up. There was a vertical tunnel up there, so I supposed I was on one of those moving floors. Sure enough, it began to rise.

I was anxious. I was very, very anxious. Just what state would Spyro and Ignitus be in? At least, Spyro couldn't be dead. Obviously I would _know_... somehow... wouldn't I? Yet I still couldn't help but be filled with dread. The elevator kept going up and up and up. Forever up. I must have waited for at least ten minutes. All the better; I needed to gather every bit of courage I had left. I could _not _fail. I would not fail them.

The ride was painfully quiet. Blissfully quiet. There was nothing but the silence as I went higher and higher up. Sometimes I felt dizzy as I adjusted to the altitude, but that was all I could feel.

Finally, the elevator reached the top of its destination. I had finally reached the top of tower that looked over the whole of Concurrent Skies. But I was not looking at the scenery, for in the corner, I saw him.

"Spyro."


	32. The Truth

I slowly approached his limp form, inching forward ever so slowly until I was standing over him. It was obvious that he had been in a fight with Cynder. There was a gash that spanned over his whole side, and he had numerous other cuts. He was just... battered. The wounds seemed to have scarred by then, so the fight must have taken place hours ago.

A great fear overcame me. I drew back in horror, but then resolutely walked back up to him. I stared at him, straining... Yes, he was breathing. If nothing else, he was alive. I began to breathe again—I had stopped breathing entirely!—and gave a shudder of relief.

_If only you had been there to help him! _My mind yelled at me. _You shouldn't have listened to Terrador! _I looked away. I was right... if I hadn't just left him for dead, he wouldn't have been so...

I turned away, only to be met with the same type of cage Terrador had been suspended in;. In it was Ignitus. He seemed to be unconscious, for he didn't respond to me or Sparx and his eyes were closed.

I walked forward quickly, all the time wondering how I was to release him from the cage, and hoping that he and Spyro would be strong enough to either walk or fly back to the Temple. I was afraid of what would happen if they couldn't...

"Crystal..." Sparx said. I ignored him and picked up the pace. "Uh, Crystal?"

"What?" I snapped, keeping my voice low.

"I don't like this... It feels like she's baiting us. I'm getting smarter."

"Ridiculous."

"If I was an evil dragon intent on killing you, and you had just destroyed half of my army, I would set you up too. This looks like a trap," Sparx said uneasily.

"Trap or not, we need to get them out of here," I replied, thinking to myself that perhaps Sparx had finally hit something there. Nonetheless, a quick scan of the area revealed nothing. Where could Cynder possibly hide? I looked up at the ceiling, but we were in a glass dome that had some obsidian-coloured metal bars holding it up. That was all.

As Sparx and I approached the cage, Ignitus opened his eyes. They flickered with just a hint of recognition. For a moment, they threatened to dim, but then they lit up completely.

"Crystal... destroy it... quickly!" he said, his voice weak and drained. I glanced at the crystal resting near the cage. That must have been what he was referring to.

"Let's get them out of here before Cynder gets back," I said to Sparx, about to walk over to the crystal hurriedly. The fight could wait for a while yet. I just wanted to get Spyro and Ignitus far away.

There was a rush of wind and blur jumped in front of me. In dawn's grey light, I could just make out her form, shrouded in shadow.

Cynder.

"If only it were that easy, little one," Cynder said. I backed away from her, but she kept walking towards me when I did so. I couldn't get away.

"S-so b-b-big!" Sparx stuttered.

"Time you learn how complicated life can be," Cynder growled. She waved her head in the air, and before I could move, her head collided with my body. I was sent flying and smashed into one of the pillars at the edge of the circular tower-top.

"Run, Crystal! Save yourself!" Ignitus yelled.

I could. I could run. I could go to the Temple, or to the Swamp, or perhaps I could never stop flying and...

No.

I would _not _leave them behind. I would _not _leave them for dead. Not again. Not ever. Both of them they... they just... I can't. I never could. Spyro was my twin brother, for pity's sake. We had been together as far as I could remember. And Ignitus was just... well, Ignitus! Exactly the point. Even after he had lost hope, he just kept going, and I wasn't going to let it end for him now.

"No! This time I fight!" I roared, prepared to die for them. I picked myself up and assumed a fighting stance.

Cynder chuckled, but the laugh was devoid of humor. Her eyes narrowed. "Bring it!"

_I am not afraid. I am not afraid, _I chanted in my head, as Cynder swiped at me with her scythed tail. I rolled out of the way and breathed a burst of electricity at her, only stopping to glance at Ignitus. He said nothing, only watched helplessly. I put him out of my mind. Though I knew he would want me to leave, I wasn't going to let Cynder get away with everything she had done when I was so close.

I backed up and shot three fireballs in rapid succession, but amid the ensuing chaos, Cynder smacked me with her wing. I was knocked off my feet, but I stood up again immediately. The fight wasn't out of me, not yet. It would take more than one little hit for that.

I dashed out of the way of another blow, then shot a few earth blasts at her. Dodging a swipe, I breathed more blasts, but I was thrown off my feet again. Cynder snapped at me, but luckily, I managed to jump out of the way and her teeth snapped together with a metallic _click. _I unsuccessfully tried to freeze her, so settled for alternating between fire and earth for the next few minutes. I tried once to throw her off the edge with electricity, but she was too big; it merely stunned her for a moment. I rushed in and delivered a blow with all my strength, but Cynder, who seemed to be totally unharmed, kicked me away. The blow left a long gash on my leg in its wake, made with her claws.

_I can't do this alone, _I realized. I remained steady, but pain was radiating from the wound, and every step or bound I took felt like thousands of needles were piercing my leg. Nonetheless, I charged at Cynder, hitting her as hard as I could and causing her to stumble. I took this chance to use the last of my energy and shock her. I only let up when I was out of breath, literally.

That was what had happened to Spyro, I realized. He had run out of energy. It was how Cynder defeated him. I knew I wasn't going to last much longer and I wished for just a moment that I had run as Ignitus had told me to... No! I couldn't run away from this! I had to face Cynder and defeat her, put an end to her reign once and for all.

I glanced over at Spyro, checking on him, only to find that he was just awakening. He looked confused. A flash of lighting and the rumble of thunder snapped me back to attention, and I jumped back just in time to dodge an attack from Cynder.

Although the top of the tower had giant glass windows, I prayed it wouldn't rain. Not now. Any time but now. Even if I did somehow defeat Cynder, I would be weak enough already and the Temple was far away. I simply could _not _fly back in the rain. Luckily, my prayers were answered. The clouds, although dangerously dark, did not pour upon Concurrent Skies. But lightning would occasionally flash, illuminating Cynder for a second, and thunder boomed, shaking the very foundation of the fortress.

The battle waged on and on. Each minute was like an hour to my tired body. The slash that Cynder had delivered had stopped bleeding, but now my leg was stiff and I could hardly run anymore. My elemental energies had disappeared long ago. Like a frogweed in the water it returned so slowly on its own, and with no Spirit Gems in sight, I had to resort to getting close to Cynder to attack her and dodging back. I felt that I was not going to last much longer.

Then, what I knew was coming came. I had just dodged another attack, but I could tell Cynder was getting irritated. Her eyes, glittering with fury, were—

Green. Again, they had flashed green, like at Dante's Freezer. But this time, it didn't happen so fast that I could pass it off as a trick of the light; they stayed that way for several seconds and she was completely still for all of them.

I think it was at that point that all my anger melted away. _She's different, _I realized. I wasn't sure why, I wasn't sure how, but she just _was. _We stared at each other for an eternity, neither of us so much as breathing.

But a flash of lighting streaked across the early morning sky. _Boom! _With that, it began to rain, the fat drops hitting the dome so fast that the noise was constant. When the first raindrop hit the ceiling, Cynder's eyes turned to the rusty red again. She swiped at me one last time and I couldn't dodge quickly enough. The attack knocked me over and I skidded over the cold, metal floor. I couldn't get up. I was just so weak.

_Boom boom boom boom. _I could hear the rain beating on the glass, drowning out all other sounds. My vision blurred like the dome probably was. I thought perhaps I would black out, and that would be nice. Just give in... go to sleep... but I fought it tooth-and-nail, knowing I couldn't lose. Not now. Nonetheless, Cynder turned into a silhouette and the walls mere shadows. Cynder's shadow stalked over to me, but before she could do anything, she suddenly stumbled back. So surprised at this that I jolted out of sleep, I managed to stand up onto shaky feet. My vision cleared. Lo and behold, Spyro had awoken and jumped into the battle not a moment too soon.

I took a second to rest, but no way was I going to let Spyro fight alone. I hopped back onto my feet and charged. Together, we managed to do serious damage to Cynder in a short span of a few minutes. Still, though she did not die or relent.

Suddenly and without forewarning, Cynder rammed into us, causing both Spyro and I to get shoved back and nearly topple over. Cynder laughed. I eyed her suspiciously. Had we hurt her at all?

"It's so sad it must to end this way," she said, not a bit of woe in her icy voice.

Spyro jumped into the air and dived for Cynder, but she smacked him away the moment he neared her. Spyro crashed to the ground. I should have gone after Cynder, but I ran over to Spyro instead.

"Now... where was I?" Cynder asked, flying over to Ignitus. She snatched up the crystal containing his power up. The cage disappeared and Ignitus landed on the ground with a thump.

Cynder launched into the air and crashed through the glass ceiling. I ducked as shards of the glass rained down into the room, along with the actual rain. Luckily, nobody was hurt.

"Does she ever use doors?!" Sparx yelled. I ignored him and helped Spyro up, but refused to make eye contact with him.

Drained, I sat down, breathing heavily. This had been the most taxing fight yet... and Cynder was not even dead. Ignitus walked over to us silently. I hung my head. I had failed.

"There was something in her eyes, Ignitus. Something familiar..." Spyro said, choosing his words carefully.

The green flash. Maybe he had seen it too. I cast a wistful glance at Spyro then stared at Cynder as she made her way through the sky, faster than a flying arrow.

"There should be... Spyro, Crystal. You and Cynder share more than you know..." Ignitus said with a sigh. "It's time I told you the truth... all of it."

I blinked. He had been lying to us? But, why?

"You see, when I took your egg to the Silver River, I returned to the Grotto to find utter chaos. The other Guardians had been overrun, and all of the eggs had been smashed by the Dark Master's forces. All except one... You see, the Dark Master was torn. He wanted to destroy all the eggs to prevent the birth of the purple dragon, but he also needed a dragon," Ignitus explained.

"Why would he need a dragon?" Spyro asked.

"Because, Spyro, only one born in the Year of the Dragon could open the portal that served as the Dark Master's prison."

That's when it dawned on me. "It's Cynder, isn't it?" I asked reluctantly.

"I'm afraid so."

"But if we come from the same place, why is she so... so..." Spyro began, but couldn't finish his sentence.

"She's older than we are. Why?" I asked, voice solemn. I gazed up through the dome. Cynder was all but gone.

"Because, she was... corrupted by the Dark Master's poisonous powers." Ignitus said sadly. "Twisted by his evil lore. She has become the Dark Master's monster."

"But... why? What does this 'Dark Master' want?" Spyro asked, shaking his head as if he didn't believe this.

"He wants to be freed from the portal of Convexity. To wreak havoc across the realms. And if Cynder gets there... he just might succeed," Ignitus whispered, dread in his voice.

I looked up as there was a flash in the sky. A giant portal, swirling with various shades of purple, opened up. It swallowed the clouds and sapped up every bit of sky near it, turning it a sickly dark green and twisted purples devoid of light. I saw a black speck disappear into it.

"I'm afraid we might be too late!" Ignitus said loudly, over the roar of the wind that had just picked up.

"No. I refuse to give up. We're going to stop Cynder _and _the Dark Master!" Spyro exclaimed, preparing to take off into the air.

"Whoa whoa, you heard the dragon, Spyro. We'll get him next time. Come on, champ, you did a great job... let's—let's take five," Sparx said, flying in Spyro's way.

I suddenly felt anger, but it wasn't directed at any specific person. I was just _angry. _Who said me or Spyro couldn't take on Cynder? We could!

"No! I'm ready. _Now!" _I exclaimed, turning to Ignitus. Whether or not he gave me permission, I was going.

"Okay... okay, you're right. At the very least you have to try," Ignitus said, giving in.

I didn't need to be told twice that I could go. Spyro and I jumped into the air, reluctantly followed by Sparx. Just as we reached the top of the dome, we looked back.

"If the Dark Master escapes, a shadow will fall over the land. And who knows what will happen then," Ignitus said.

I nodded, my face set. That wasn't going to happen if I had anything to say about it. We dawdled no longer; Spyro, Sparx, and I took off for the portal. The rain beat down on my scales and burned me with icy cold fire, but I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore it.

"May the ancestors look after you..." Ignitus murmured. I barely caught it. "May they look after us all."

I closed my eyes and paused for a moment and considered looking back one last time, but I couldn't risk stalling. Fear might take over again, I might decide to stay after all. I flew into the portal before I could think about it any longer.

~~...~~

"Convexity acts as a airlock between our world and the Dark Realms." Ignitus spoke to us through thought. I _still _didn't have it figured out how he did that, but that's not what I was focused on now. I could ask him about it after I was done there.

I was gliding through the air towards a platform. It was harder to fly here. I felt like I was constantly being pulled back, pulled away, to the point where what I was doing couldn't even be described as flying at all.

It seemed like I was in the sky. There were stars and planets in the distance, that I could see very clearly. Strange creatures flew here, like a giant blue jellyfish that floated about the area. As I landed on a brown, floating platform, one of many, I stared in around awe for a moment. But I shook my head and focused on the task at hand: getting to Cynder before she could put the crystal in.

"You must stop Cynder before she inserts the final crystal and activates the portal, freeing the Dark Master," Ignitus said after the long pause was finished. He said no more.

There was a loud groaning noise. I jumped when I heard it and looked around, trying to find the source. A _humongous _creature floated from below the platform and into my sight. The creature was... unexplainable. It looked like a cross between a jellyfish and a crab, and rather like something from a dream.

_Perhaps I am dreaming. Perhaps none of this ever happened, and I'm back at the Swamp, sleeping. _Wistful thinking. You couldn't feel pain in dreams, and this was too long, not to mention too clear.

Maybe I was dead, and just living in an illusion of my afterlife. Perhaps Spyro had not woken up, Cynder had not stumbled back, I had never stood again once I fell. But that was ridiculous.

"Now I've seen everything," Sparx said, staring at the creature and bringing me out of my reverie.

"Yeah, and we we don't hurry, I have a feeling we're going to see a whole lot more," Spyro said testily.

"Let's go," I said, walking forward. I wasn't ready... but I was determined. The final fight awaited. Whether I lived or died was all on me now.


	33. A Happy Ending?

I gave chase to Cynder, who was bounding along the platforms just in front of me. I kept coming near, but no matter what I did, I could not catch her. She could jump the floating hexagons (both on their own and glued together) that were everywhere four at a time, while I could only jump one. She was just so much faster.

I sighed. In the distance was a great purple pillar of light, spiraling up and down eternally. Surrounded by the light beam was the biggest hexagon platform of all. That was Cynder's destination, and I stopped just before it. I could not continue on until I said what I was thinking.

I paused and considered backing out, but forced myself to ask, "Spyro?"

"Yes?" he asked.

"I... I'm sorry," I said sadly.

"Don't be. It's not your fault," Spyro said gently.

I gazed at the ground guiltily. "But it is. I should have gone after you."

"After the night passed, I thought you weren't coming. But I'm almost glad you didn't..." Spyro murmured.

"Why?"

"It was horrible... Just don't be sorry. It's _not _your fault, Crystal. Don't blame yourself."

"Um, you guys?" Sparx asked. "I would love to sit here and apologize and hug everyone, but we have something more, oh I don't know, _important _to do!"

"He's right. Come on," I said, leading the way, glad I had made amends with Spyro. At least I didn't feel as guilty now.

I climbed up the platform steps and onto the central area. Cynder was just walking for the spiral of purple light, the red crystal hanging from her mouth by a chain attached to its top. I could tell she knew we were behind her, but she didn't turn, just sped up and dropped the crystal into the light.

"My master returns," Cynder said, usually impassive voice betraying just a hint of exultation.

"We're too late!" Spyro exclaimed. The ground began to rumble, but we held our footing.

"Hmph. Persistent little fellas, aren't you?" Cynder growled. "This is where it really ends."

"Bring it!" I shouted, mocking her words.

"No mercy this time!" Immediately, Cynder shot a blast of dark fire at me, which I barely dodged.

"I can't watch this..." Sparx muttered, flying out of the way.

Cynder sprinted for us, but Spyro and I flapped into the air, just avoiding a toss of her horns. I threw a fireball her way and landed. Frustrated, Cynder shot for Spyro, missing by an inch as he quickly sidestepped out of the way. Cynder turned to me and swiped at me with her claws, and again she missed.

I knew it was urgent that I remain unharmed in this fight. If I got hit more than once or twice, I was done for. Therefore, I was on my constant guard.

I began running again. I had a plan. I ran until I almost reached the edge of the circular platform we were on then abruptly stopped and jumped to the side. What happened next didn't exactly go as planned—I was hoping Cynder would skid off the edge, but she caught herself—though at the very least, I managed to take her while she was surprised and get a bite at her long, snake-like neck. After I did, though, she threw me away. I just barely caught myself before I slid into the abyss below.

Spyro breathed an arc of electricity which hit Cynder, as she had been paying attention to me and didn't have time to dodge. It didn't seem to faze her very much, though. I stood up and rushed for Cynder again, but I backed up as she breathed a torrent of dark flames. The red element that she had breathed on Ignitus to make him fall came next, and this time, it hit me.

Waves of pain and terror suddenly washed over me. I had the impulse to run, but I was held in place. Even when I struggled to move, I couldn't. Cynder ran up to me and was about to attack me, but Spyro saved me. Again. By the time Cynder recovered from Spyro's blast of ice, I had regained control and had already gotten a safe distance away from Cynder.

I shuddered. What _was _that? Besides being unable to move, I felt as if something was eating away at me from the inside. What a strange element... it couldn't be natural, could it? The Guardians had never mentioned anything like this.

Cynder took to the air and displayed yet another odd element. She breathed a black, suffocating, mist-like element that shrouded my vision and prevented me from seeing or breathing well. Cynder targeted Spyro and launched an assault on him, as he couldn't see his paw in front of his face. I tried to find Cynder in the mist, but I only succeeded in nearly smothering. I felt like I was breathing in smoke.

When the strange fog finally cleared, I had to stop for a few seconds to cough. I had this horrible feeling—my chest tightened up and I could barely breathe. After a moment, though, I managed to gulp in some air and continue fighting.

I ran for Cynder and breathed fire on her, jumping out of the attacks she proceeded to throw at me. Spyro used electricity. But... Cynder didn't even seem to feel it. It was as if pain was something beyond her. I sighed, feeling drained already, but I had to keep pushing on, had to defeat Cynder with Spyro. Everything was counting on us.

I launched icicle shards at Cynder, then breathed an icy mist. It slowed her down as well as hurt her, and Spyro managed to get in a few more hits. But Cynder breathed yet another new element—a wind that knocked us over. And that wasn't the end of it, oh no. Occasionally, the wind would draw us _in _rather than pushing us _out. _Luckily for us, we didn't get blown off the edge and I managed to stay out of Cynder's reach, but I was still very dismayed and _very _anxious. How were we to fight this dragon who breathed five elements and didn't seem to feel pain?

Cynder took to the air and circled the beam of light, which was now beginning to glow brighter. It was almost like the sun; looking at it hurt. As Cynder flew around us, she breathed her fire of shadow and I just barely didn't get burned alive. I did get singed, though. I'd been singed before, but this was... just... so painful. As if the fire had hit me full on rather than barely licking me.

Spyro ran to Cynder to get in a few swipes with his claws, but after only damaging her a little bit, Cynder pushed him back with the wind-like element. He nearly went flying off the edge, but luckily managed to catch himself while in the air. Meanwhile, I backed up and breathed small bursts of ice streams at Cynder, keeping a fair distance away from her.

Spyro, now back beside me, and I both breathed fireballs at Cynder. _Now _she was hurt. She slumped and took a moment to catch her breath, clearly in pain.

_Yes! _I thought, noticing that she was weakening and looked close to death. _We're going to win! _Even though I was overjoyed, though, I still couldn't help feel a pang of remorse for Cynder. It wasn't her fault that she was like this.

But there was little time to rejoice, for something horrible happened. Somehow, Cynder managed to draw in a last bit of strength. Red energy began to appear around her and orbs of the same color danced like fireflies about her. Cynder was using Fury.

When she released the power, cold hatred burning in her dark eyes, it knocked Spyro and I over. I thought I had felt pain before... that was nothing compared to what I felt then. It was like I was being torn limb-from-limb.

When I finally recovered, though, I felt drastically different. Where I should have been dead or dying after that blow, it was quite the contrary. I felt more powerful than I ever had before. But I also felt hatred... I had never really, truly hated anything before, but now I felt undying hatred for Cynder. Something was in the back of my throat then; a new element for sure, but it hurt. I breathed it out.

A purple wave of crackling, glowing energy dashed towards Cynder and collided with her with much force. That looked like it had cause a lot of damage. I paused, surprised. What... what was that...? I had never breathed that before—I didn't even know it had existed! Spyro had breathed the element as well, and we exchanged glances before breathing more and more waves of this hate-fueled element. Cynder tried to retaliate, but whenever she tried to do anything, our blasts sucked her attacks up.

Again and again the waves hit her, but still she wouldn't die! I began to wonder if she c_ould _die! Well, at the very least, she was clearly in pain now. But she just refused to go down and I was beginning to run out of energy again.

Hopelessness began to eat at me; I was like a slowly-burning leaf and there was almost nothing left. Was I going to die here, in this cold, dead void? But just as I began to lose hope, the voice came to me—Ignitus.

"_Now... it's time to unleash the true dragon within you." _Was he speaking to us through the talking-magic? Or was it just a memory? It had only been a day, perhaps two, but it felt as if years had passed since he last said those words. But somehow, they gave me strength. Spyro and I looked at each other and we knew what to do.

This element, this _powerful _element, could use Fury like any other could. Not even Cynder could stand up against that. We charged up the element and began to lift off the ground, and not a moment too soon. I felt the power grow inside me until I couldn't contain it anymore. It suddenly released itself in beams and waves that homed in on Cynder and hit her again and again. She was suspended in the air and could do nothing but allow the element to slowly kill her.

And that's when it ended. Spyro and I had used all of the power we had left inside us. I felt weakened and drained, hardly able to hold myself up. Cynder fell out of the air and hit the ground with a light thud. She did not move at all. I dropped back down onto the ground and took a few cautious steps forward.

Cynder released her last breath and stared at us. Her dark eyes, dim and almost blank, met mine and I felt nothing but a mix of emotions. Relief and regret, combined together into a confusing mess. I was relieved that it was all over and everybody could rest, but I regretted that Cynder had to die for the fault of another, namely the Dark Master. The last bit of flame in Cynder's eyes flickered and died out. They glazed over and she was still.

But it wasn't quite over yet. A pallid light surrounded Cynder, enveloping her in its feeble glow. The white light intensified, beginning to shine brighter and brighter, a star in its own right. Then, with a flash, Cynder was no longer Cynder. I stared at the form before me in shock and disbelief

Cynder, Cynder who had been large and powerful, an adult, and so terrifying that just the sight of her could make your blood run cold, was now a child.

It _had _to be her. There was no doubt about it. The dragon before me had the same black scales, the same silver markings on her forehead, and even the same scythes on her tail and wingtips, but this simply could not have been the Cynder that had once stood before me. Her eyes opened slightly and I saw they were the same green they had been the two times they changed before. She made an attempt to lift her head, but could not, and lay still again.

"Oh, she is just like me..." Spyro murmured, as if he didn't believe Ignitus before that moment.

That's when the platform began to quake dangerously, spasms rippling through it like an earthquake. The light pillar began to grow and fluctuate and the various objects and lifeforms in the area began to get sucked towards the portal—including Cynder and our party!

"Dude, we've gotta get outta here, now!" Sparx said to Spyro.

"I-I can't leave her behind!" Spyro exclaimed. "I've got to save her!"

The force of the pull exerted from the light increased. I grabbed onto the inequalities between the hexagons and tried to keep myself from being sucked in. Meanwhile, the unconscious Cynder was getting pulled closer and closer to the beam of light.

"_What? _Save the beast that's been trying to kill us?!" Sparx argued, raising his voice over the odd roaring that had begun.

"That wasn't her fault! She was being used by the Dark Master!"

"Didn't you listen to Ignitus?!" I demanded, tightening my grip on the platform.

"I'm going to save her," Spyro said determinedly, before letting go of his hold, twisting around, and plunging into the spiral of light where Cynder had disappeared. I followed suit.

When I entered that world, all feeling left me, replaced with a cold numbness. A ringing was in my ears, sometimes quiet humming _hush little baby don't say a word_ and sometimes loud pounding _boom __boom boom time you learn how complicated life can be_. This place was white and peaceful, the calm before the storm, but something... something was here, and it frightened me.

I flew after Spyro, unaware of the feeling of flapping my wings. I only knew they were beating when I looked at them. Spyro grabbed Cynder and immediately headed for the exit, straining to fly forward. For one terrifying moment, I thought we weren't going to get out. The pull was still in here, and it was getting harder to fight. Something flashed before my eyes then went away. It did it again. I couldn't focus on it.

The picture I was seeing overtook my vision. Glowing yellow eyes with cat-like slits in them pierced the darkness. By some unknown source, perhaps lightning, the face behind the eyes lit up. I was reminded again of the nightmare I had had where Spyro had transformed into that monster. But then the picture was gone, and my sight returned to me.

We were back outside of the... whatever that place was. I shook my head vigorously, clearing the image of that strange dragon's eyes from my memory, and kept pace with Spyro.

"_Now _we can go!" Spyro exclaimed. I glanced at him. Had he seen the dragon, too? His face didn't betray anything that would imply he had. I decided to ask later. Now, the important thing was getting out of Convexity.

"Right behind ya, buddy!" Sparx replied, following Spyro.

~~...~~

I'm not quite sure how we found the portal that led out, but find it we did. The walls around us were a distorted purple color, swirling in circles and spirals with no direction. I was careful not to touch them. Rocks and hexagons shot towards us, but we managed to dodge them.

After what seemed like many minutes of flying, though perhaps it was only a few seconds, the end of the tunnel came in sight. The beautiful colours of day were on the horizon, and the Temple was just in the distance. The Guardians must have seen the portal open, I thought.

We were spit out into a forest with vehement force and sent flying through the air. We were no longer able to control our movements. I saw the ground coming quickly, but I didn't have time to brace myself for the impact. I hit the ground hard, rolling through the grass before coming to a full stop.

"Mommy? Fluff my pillow?" Sparx asked. I would have snickered had the situation been different.

I was beginning to black out now. I felt... like I was dying, almost. There was no pain, but the unconscious, fuzzy feeling was starting to consume me. I didn't really mind that much, though. I had managed to do the unthinkable—but, of course, I hadn't done it alone. There was a part of me worried about the Dark Master escaping, but that part of my mind was quickly blotted out by the darkness. I was close to home, with Spyro and Sparx beside me, and that was okay. I closed my eyes and allowed myself to slip into the darkness and sleep.

My only regret was that I didn't get to see the look on the Guardians' faces when they saw that Spyro, Sparx, and I had brought back Cynder.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Well, I guess that's the end. I can mark this story complete, and it will start to fall down the list. But don't worry, the sequel is here! Just find The Legend of Crystal 2: Rising to continue the legend!**

**I'd like to give a special thanks to all who reviewed, especially Richer1992, Chuckles the Cheat, and Zerospyro. They, and many others, kept me going through this story. Thank you. :)**


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